Disclaimer: Alas, I don’t own the characters of Popular. They belong to Ryan Murphy, but
hopefully he won’t mind if I borrow them for a little while.

Feedback: Yes, please! mysensitiveside@yahoo.com

Summary: Sam and Brooke are in college. What happens in the aftermath of one crazy night...

A/N: This is my very first Popular fic. Or any kind of fanfic, for that matter. So
please let me know what you think, cause I’m a little nervous about actually
posting. And I haven’t actually seen all the Popular episodes (and the ones that
I have seen, I saw a long time ago), so I apologize in advance if I get some
facts or anything wrong.

A/N2: Thoughts are in [ ]. And memories/flashbacks are in italics.

PART 1 -- Freshman Year

Chapter 1

Brooke’s head hurt. A lot. She
could tell that light was streaming into her room, but she couldn’t quite face
opening her eyes just yet. As she lay motionlessly on her bed, flashes of memory
suddenly came streaming back to her...

Her hands entangling
themselves into the long hair of the girl below her.

Was it all a dream? Instantly,
Brooke became aware of the fact that she was not alone in her bed. How could she
have missed this very obvious bit of information?? Her heart racing, Brooke
finally teased open her eyes, bracing for the sunlight and whatever else she
might find.

[ Yes, there is definitely a
girl in my bed, but I can’t quite see her face. And her shoulder is making a
very comfortable pillow. And I’m half on top of her. And neither of us is
wearing clothing. Shit. What’s going on?? ]

The stillness of the dorm room
was suddenly interrupted by the sound of a vibrating phone, sitting on top of
Brooke’s desk. As quickly as she could, Brooke extracted herself from the arms
wrapped around her and rushed across the small room, grabbing the phone before
it could wake up her peaceful bedmate.

“Hello?” she whispered harshly
into the phone.

“Brooke? Why are you
whispering?” was the reply on the other end.

“Nic? Why are you calling so
early?”

“Early? Brooke, it’s 12:30! You
never sleep in this late. What’s wrong with you? Are you sick?”

Brooke whirled around to look at
her clock. Sure enough, Nic was right. But her clock was sitting on the small
table right next to her bed. Her bed that was not empty. Her bed that was
occupied by -- she had been afraid to look, afraid to confirm her suspicions,
but now she couldn’t help it -- occupied by Sam. Her step-sister. Her very naked
step-sister.

[ Oh god. Not good. ]

Sam had rolled over onto her
side, cuddling up with Brooke’s pillow. Brooke had just enough time to think
about how cute Sam looked. Then she remembered that she too was naked, and she
was still on the phone with Nic. Grabbing the bathrobe hanging on the back of
her door, she quickly pulled it on and turned back away from Sam, while Nic
practically yelled in her ear.

“Hellooooo?? Brooke, what the
hell is going on?!”

“Um, sorry Nic. It’s just that,
um, we had a party on the hall last night. And, um, yeah. I was up pretty late.
And now my head really hurts. And I’m sure that, um, lots of other people on the
hall are still sleeping too. And um, you know, walls are really thin here. So
yeah, that’s why I’m, um, whispering.”

There was a slight pause. Brooke
cringed, knowing that Nic wasn’t likely to buy her awkward explanation.

“What?!” Brooke answered, louder
than she meant to. She heard Sam start to stir behind her, but she refused to
look back there. Returning back to whispering, she quickly went on, “No one is
in my bed! Because right now, I’M not in my bed, and there is definitely no one
else in there either.”

[ Don’t panic. Don’t panic. ]

“You are such a bad liar,
Brookie. I’ve always told you that.” Brooke could practically hear the smirk
that she just knew was spreading across Nic’s face.

“Look, Nic, this conversation
has been lots of fun. But like you said, it’s late. And I have a lot of stuff to
get done today, so I gotta go. But we’ll talk again later, sometime, okay?
Great, bye!” And she hung up without waiting for an answer, and then immediately
shut off her phone.

[ Don’t panic. Don’t panic.
Hopefully Sam’s not awake yet, and then... And then what? We’re in my room, so
it’s not like I can just leave. And what if she is awake? And I’m just standing
here like an idiot, looking at my phone. ]

Slowly, Brooke turned around.
Sam was sitting up in her bed, the sheets pulled up tightly to her chin. She
just stared at Brooke with a definite deer-caught-in-headlights look. Brooke was
sure that the look mirrored the one on her own face. They just stared at each
other. Neither one daring to move.

Then Sam suddenly sprang into
motion, jumping out of bed and grabbing the first bits of clothing she came
across -- her own pants, but Brooke’s shirt, pulling it on inside out.

Brooke just watched the frantic
action, unsure of what to do. Sam finally stood up fully, glancing briefly at
Brooke’s stunned face, before her eyes continued sweeping the room, and she
spoke her first words since waking up.

“Where’s my key to my room? I
have to go.”

Grateful for something to do,
Brooke also started looking around the room, her eyes finally landing on Sam’s
keychain, halfway hidden under Brooke’s bra on the floor.

Reaching down to pick it up, she
simply held it out to Sam, without saying anything. Sam grabbed the keys from
her, mumbled what sounded vaguely like “Thanks,” and quickly left the room,
leaving Brooke alone.

Brooke simply collapsed into the
chair behind her and banged her head down on the desk.

[ What a great start to my day. ]

Chapter 2

Sam and Brooke sat next to each
other on the plane. Sam had managed to avoid Brooke for most of the day before,
and she was pretty sure that Brooke was purposely avoiding her too. But now,
seeing as how they were both flying across the country, each heading to the same
exact house, there wasn’t much that either of them could do about it.

So they sat uncomfortably. And
said nothing.

[ This sucks. What am I supposed
to do? Brooke won’t talk to me. Or maybe she’s just not talking to me because
I’m not talking to her. But in order to find out if that’s true, I would have to
talk to her. Which I really don’t want to do. I wonder what she’s thinking about
right now. Damn it, why did we decide that going to the same college and living
in the same dorm would be a good idea? This sucks. ]

For the hundredth-or-so time in
the past few days, Sam tried to remember exactly what had happened on that
Thursday, the last week before Winter break.

A smiling Brooke walked up to
Sam’s table at the dining hall, where she sat eating lunch, looking over the
latest edition of the school newspaper and making sure no typos were left in the
final print. Sam looked up and couldn’t help but smile back. The girl’s obvious
happiness was infectious.

Brooke walked right passed a
surprised Sam, continuing around the table until she was standing behind her
step-sister. Then she happily wrapped her arms tightly around the brunette,
hugging her from behind, before finishing her trip around the table and sitting
down across from Sam.

Sam smiled and raised one
eyebrow in question, so Brooke explained, “Sorry, I just wanted to give you a
hug, but didn’t want to make you get up, so I figured that this was the easiest,
if somewhat roundabout solution.”

Sam just laughed in response.
“You goofball. So what’s up?”

“I’m done! I am officially
done with my first semester of college! I just handed in my last paper, and it’s
probably a piece of crap, but I honestly don’t care anymore. So I’m done!”

“Hey, that’s great!
Congrats!” And Sam proceeded to jump out of her chair, jog behind Brooke, hug
her from behind, and then continue back to her own seat. Anyone watching the two
friends would have thought they were somewhat insane. “Well we should celebrate!
I took my last exam this morning, and our flight home isn’t until Saturday, so
we totally have to have some fun tonight and make fun of our friends who are
still working.”

“Actually that’s what I came
over to talk to you about. Most of my hall is done early too, and it’s Charlie’s
birthday, so we’re having a party. You totally have to come by and drink with
us.”

Sam smiled. “Sounds like
fun.”

[ And it had been a lot of fun.
But how did it end with me waking up in Brooke’s bed on Friday morning? ]

Sam kept facing straight ahead,
but glanced over so she could see Brooke out of the corner of her eye. The
blonde had fallen asleep. Sam sighed, and allowed her thoughts to return back to
that crazy night.

Sam watched Brooke dance with
Charlie, the birthday boy. Brooke caught her eye and made a facial expression
that made it obvious that she wasn’t very happy with the situation. Sam just
grinned back at her, and laughed to herself.

[ That’s what you get,
Princess, for being such a hottie. You always did tell me that being blonde and
beautiful wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. ]

Then Sam noticed Katie, her
roommate, and went over to join her. Katie had quickly become good friends with
both Sam and Brooke. Together, the three of them had inspired the telling of
quite a few jokes about, “a blonde, a brunette, and a redhead.”

“Hey, Sam, there you are. I
was wondering where you’d gone off to. Your sister seems to be having a great
time with Charlie. That guy seriously needs to work on being less sleazy.”

“Seriously. And she’s my
STEP-sister, not my sister.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. You
both keep telling me that, but I can just never seem to remember those extra
four little letters. I mean, does it really matter?”

Sam considered the question,
taking another swig of her drink, as she watched Brooke squeeze away from
Charlie and make her way over to the keg.

“Damn, I’m not drunk enough
for this party yet. My drink still tastes like shit. And yes, it does matter.
Whether Brooke and I were at each other’s throats, or were actually friends, our
relationship has never been exactly...sisterly.”

But soon Sam’s second drink
turned into her sixth, and she no longer noticed the bad taste to the cheap
alcohol. And before she quite knew how it had happened, she was dancing with
Brooke. Brooke drunkenly draped her arms over Sam’s shoulders, as Sam clumsily
placed her hands on Brooke’s waist and pulled their bodies together.

“Sammy, I just want you to
know that I’m really really glad that we’ve become friends.”

Sam giggled. “I know, Brooke.
You make a point of telling me that every time we get drunk.”

“Well it’s true! I mean, I
eventually forgave Nic and everything, but ever since the accident, you’ve
become the only person I can count on. The only person I really trust to always
be there for me.”

Brooke leaned forward and
softly kissed Sam on the forehead.

[ And then what? Then everything
gets fuzzy. How did we get from dancing at the party, with so many people
around...to standing in Brooke’s room, just the two of us? I honestly can’t
remember how we got there. Does Brooke remember? What would happen if I asked
her? But I can’t ask her! That would be way too embarrassing. So what else do I
remember on my own? I remember kissing her. Lying down on her bed, pulling her
on top of me. Flashes of us together. Was it good? I think it felt pretty good.
And then waking up to her talking on the phone with Nicole, with Satan. I
couldn’t handle it, I just had to get out of there. Shit! I can’t believe this
happened, how the hell did this happen? ]

Sam groaned in frustration,
waking up Brooke, who glanced over at her. Sam glanced back, before clenching
her jaw and resolutely turning to look out the window. To look away from Brooke.

[ Well, it’s going to be a long vacation. ]

Chapter 3

Brooke found that it was a
strange situation, living in such close proximity to Sam, but not talking with
her. Their relationship had entered a new phase. They had been bitter enemies,
friendly rivals, and close friends...but this was new, this weird and silent
limbo where they weren’t quite fighting, but they certainly weren’t friendly
with each other either. Brooke knew that their parents didn’t quite know what to
make of it, since neither girl would explain why she wasn’t talking to the other
one.

Brooke herself didn’t know what
to make of the situation. She missed having Sam as her best friend. She thought
about trying to just talk to her about what had happened, but the prospect of
that was just way too frightening. So she just went along with it, avoiding the
silent and brooding brunette whenever possible. Which was relatively easy to do,
since Sam was avoiding her too. But it was getting closer and closer to
Christmas, and Brooke had a feeling that Jane and her dad wouldn’t let them get
out of the “family bonding time” that was sure to come. She worried that this
was just “the calm before the storm;” inevitably, the silence was bound to break
at some point, and Brooke had a vague feeling that it wasn’t going to be pretty.

Just then, Brooke heard Sam
enter the house and hurry up the stairs. The footsteps stopped for a moment
outside Brooke’s door, but then returned down the hall and into Sam’s room. And
as had come to be the norm, this was immediately followed by the sound of Sam’s
loud music breaking into the stillness of the house.

Brooke sighed, looking down at
the book that she held in her hands, but hadn’t been paying at all attention to.

[ I’m pretty sure Sam was just
out with Lily and Carmen. I wonder if she told them about what happened. That
would make for some nice awkwardness the next time I see them. But they’ve come
to be my friends too. Now that Sam and I aren’t talking, though, I wonder if I
can still hang out with them while we’re all home. I mean, they’ve been friends
with Sam for so much longer, they’ll obviously side with her. But what am I
talking about? This isn’t really something you can take sides on. We’re not on
opposite sides of anything. Are we? I just wish I knew wha-- ]

Startled by a loud and sudden
knocking at her door, Brooke jumped off her bed, mid-thought, but then sat back
down, trying to appear casual and indifferent to whomever might be outside her
room.

“Come in.” Unfortunately, her
voice betrayed her, as she answered with an obvious nervousness.

Sam entered her room and then
simply leaned back against the door, staring intensely at Brooke. Shifting
uncomfortably, Brooke just sat there, then went with the first thing that popped
into her head. “God, Sam, do you have to keep that music blaring, when you’re
not even in your room?” It came out sounding harsher than she’d meant it to.

Without a word, Sam turned and
left the room.

[ Damn it, now I’ve gone and
scared her off. Good job, Brooke. ]

But before Brooke could worry
much about it, she heard Sam’s music turn off, and then Sam was immediately back
in her room.

“There. You happy now?”

Sam didn’t sound very happy.

“Yeah, thanks,” Brooke mumbled.
Pause. “So what’s up?”

Sam just continued to glare at
Brooke for a moment, before finally breaking the silence. “Okay, so you know
that crazy thing that happened the last week at school? That thing that we
haven’t talked about?”

Brooke opened her mouth to
speak, but Sam just continued, starting to pace around the room. “Well I don’t
really want to talk about it. ‘Cause that’s just not a conversation that I want
to have. ‘Cause that would be really awkward. I mean, this is already really
awkward, but that would be even more awkward. Still, I think it’s safe to say
that it was a really bad idea, but we were drunk, and it happened, and there’s
nothing we can do about it now. But like I said, I don’t really want to talk
about it. But I just want to get one thing clear. You haven’t told anyone about
that thing that happened, have you?”

“No, of course not. And I think
it should stay that way. Right?” When Brooke failed to say anything quickly
enough for Sam’s liking, Sam just continued talking. “Right. So we won’t tell
anyone. ‘Cause I don’t think anyone else needs to know. Well now that that’s
settled, I’m gonna go.” And she walked back out of Brooke’s room without another
glance towards the blonde.

Brooke watched Sam leave with a
stunned, and somewhat pissed-off, expression on her face.

[ So that’s it? That’s all she
has to say to me?! She just waltzes in here, barely lets me get a word in, and
then waltzes out. Of course, just because the almighty Sam doesn’t feel like
talking about what happened, then we have to put everything on her terms. And of
course, she doesn’t care about the fact that all this is confusing as hell, and
I don’t know what to think, and I don’t know what to do...all she cares about is
making sure no one knows that the perfectly-straight little Sammy hooked up with
a girl! ]

Brooke groaned in frustration
and threw her book across the room -- a sound that was drowned out by the once
again blaring volume of Sam’s music down the hall.

[ Is vacation over yet? ]

Chapter 4

Sam returned to her room and let
out a big sigh. She’d been extremely nervous about approaching Brooke.
Especially since it meant mentioning “that thing that happened,” as she’d been
calling it in her head. Once she started talking, though, her goal had become
very simple: get out of Brooke’s room as quickly as possible.

[ So Brooke hasn’t told anyone.
Well that’s good. It totally freaked me out when Lily and Carm started
practically harassing me, trying to figure out why I was in a bad mood, and why
I hadn’t brought Brooke with me. What would they think, if they knew what had
happened? Lily probably wouldn’t care. Carmen would be shocked and probably
wouldn’t stop gaping at me for at least ten minutes. But if Brooke had told
Satan, that would have been a total disaster. I know Nic has gone through all
that therapy and rehab, and is supposedly “a changed woman” and all that crap,
but whatever. I will never trust that girl, and I think Brooke’s an idiot for
forgiving her.

But anyway, the whole thing
isn’t really a big deal, right? It was a momentary lapse in judgment. A
one-time-only thing. I mean, it’s not like I want Brooke or anything. There’s no
denying that she’s beautiful, but that doesn’t mean that I want her. That would
be so weird. Not that there’s anything wrong with girls wanting other girls. But
that’s just not me. Or Brooke. I mean, come on, how crazy and messed up would
that be? Brooke probably hasn’t been worrying about it at all. She seemed
totally cool about everything when I came in. Just sitting there, reading a
book. Not freaking out, like I’ve been. She’s probably in her room now, laughing
at me and my horrible bit of rambling in there. ]

Sam stopped pacing around her
room as she heard her mom call them down to dinner. She was so busy worrying
about whether or not Brooke had told anything to anyone, that she had forgotten
to arrange it so that she wouldn’t have to eat dinner at the Palace. Well she’d
been meaning to spend some more time with little Mac, anyway. Plus, her mom and
Mike probably would have killed her, if they went another night without all five
of them together.

[ I guess I’ll just have to try to make the best of this. ]

~~~

Dinner was not going well. Sam
was somewhat surprised to find that Brooke wasn’t simply ignoring her as much as
possible; instead, she was actively glaring at Sam with an open hostility. This,
in turn, put Sam on edge, because she wasn’t sure what it was that had angered
Brooke. Mike and Jane, meanwhile, sat helplessly by, wondering what in the world
was going on between their eldest daughters, and trying desperately to both keep
a decent conversation going and keep Mac happy.

“So, Sam...Jane tells me that
you’ve been enjoying working on the newspaper. A little different than running
The Zapruder, though, huh?”

“Uh, yeah, it’s been pretty
good. I’m not doing too much now, but I’ve written a few articles, and they have
me doing some copy editing.

Brooke suddenly jumped into the
conversation, adding, “Oh come on, Sam, no need to be modest. Within a few weeks
of getting back to school in January, I bet you’ll be running the whole thing.”

Sam just looked at Brooke in
confusion. Though her words had sounded like they could be a compliment, the
tone in Brooke’s voice made it obvious that it was anything but. “What?” was all
Sam could think of to reply.

“Well I know how much you love
to be in control of everything. I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re planning a
major coup at the newspaper, so that you can run everything exactly the way you
want to.”

“Brooke, what are you talking
about? I’ve actually told you about how it’s been nice to take a step back and
not be in charge of everything, for once. So what, is making shit up about me
some new hobby of yours?”

“No, I’m just starting to see
this controlling side of you that I hadn’t really noticed before.”

“Well you’re one to talk! Aren’t
eating disorders all about needing to be in control?”

Brooke winced. “Oh, that’s a low
blow, Sam, even for you.”

“Girls! That’s enough! I thought
you two had gotten passed this crazy need you have to fight with each other!”
Mike sighed, looking between the girls with a mixture of anger, frustration, and
sadness.

Somehow, the dinner continued
relatively uneventfully for a while. Sam didn’t really want to fight with
Brooke. She felt this urge to not let the argument go, but she managed to keep
it in check for a while. Mac was even able to lighten the mood a bit with her
excited shouts of “Bam!” and “Book!” Mac hadn’t quite mastered the “s” or “r”
sounds yet, and had apparently decided that both of her sisters’ names should
start with the same letter. Unfortunately, the cease fire didn’t even last
through the rest of the meal...

Jane once again tried to start
what she hoped would be a safe topic. “So Brooke, we’ve heard a lot about Sam’s
roommate, but how’s your roommate situation going?”

Before Brooke got a chance to
answer, though, Sam immediately jumped in, with a sweetly sarcastic tone. “Oh,
didn’t Brooke tell you? Miss Amazing over there has managed to charm her way
into a single, so that she doesn’t have to deal with the annoyances of actually
sharing a room.”

“Come on, Sam, that’s completely
unfair, and you know it. I only have a single because my roommate spends
literally all her time in her boyfriend’s room! They used to actually be in my
room all the time, and I’d end up getting kicked out of my own room, just so
they could hook up! So yes, I asked Maria if she would mind going to his room
sometimes, and I’ve seen her maybe twice since then. What’s wrong with that?”

“Whatever. The fact remains that
you’ve worked your way into a room for yourself that’s meant for two people!”

“Well it’s still smaller than
your room. And you like your roommate, anyway! This is ridiculous!”

Sam’s next retort was
interrupted by Mac, who had begun to cry. Jane scooped the child into her arms,
trying to comfort her, and then glared at her other daughters. “There. Are you
girls happy now? You’ve managed to ruin the first meal that we’ve all had
together in months. I don’t know what’s going on with you two, but I suggest
that it stops, at least when the rest of us are around.”

Sam and Brooke looked down at
their plates ashamedly. Jane didn’t need to speak very loudly, but Sam heard her
disappointment loud and clear. She didn’t really know why she had continued
fighting with Brooke. It was like some kind of horrible compulsion.

The dinner was completed without
another word. Sam ventured a look around the table. Her mom and Mike still
looked upset. Mac had calmed down and was once again oblivious to the tension at
the table. Brooke looked a combination of angry and contrite. Sam sighed.

[ I wonder if we’ll both survive
this school year without killing each other. ]

Chapter 5

Brooke walked through the store,
unable to focus on the usually enjoyable activity of shopping. She also wasn’t
able to focus properly on the girl walking and talking beside her, and barely
managed to utter “yeah,” or “sure,” or “of course,” whenever it seemed
appropriate within the stream of conversation. But Brooke’s mind was not on the
task of shopping, or of listening to Nicole talk.

Brooke’s mind was still on Sam,
as it had been a lot lately. Since that disastrous dinner a few weeks ago, the
two step-sisters had reached some kind of silent truce. They still weren’t
talking much, and still got into the occasional petty argument, but Brooke
hadn’t had the urge to throw anything at Sam recently, and she took that to be a
good sign. Now she just had to worry about what would happen when they went back
to school in a few days.

Just then, she noticed that
Nicole was staring expectantly at her.

[ Shit, apparently Nic asked me
something. Can I play it off as if I know what she’s talking about? No, it’s too
late for that. ]

Brooke sighed and gave Nic an
apologetic half-smile. “Sorry, I zoned out for a second. What did you say?”

“Brooke, you did not just zone
out for one second. You’ve been off in your own la-la-land all afternoon, and
frankly, I need more attention than that. I’ve dealt with your little one-word
bits of input into my monologue, and while I don’t really mind listening to
myself talk, this is just not working for me. So spill. What’s your deal?”

“Huh? Nothing. I just, I dunno.
It’s weird being back here after a semester of college, you know?”

[ Well that’s true, but not
exactly the answer Nic’s looking for. ]

Nic just stared intently at
Brooke, apparently trying to intimidate the full truth out of her. Brooke eyed
her friend warily before continuing, “You know, you’re pretty scary when you
look like that. Mind easing off a bit?”

“Fine. For now. But I know
you’re not telling me everything, and I assure you that I will find out what’s
going on with you. I don’t like it when things are happening around me that I
don’t know about.”

Things returned to normal for a
while, and Nicole seemed happier with the increased attention. But then Nic
brought up one of the topics that Brooke had hoped to avoid that afternoon.

“By the way…you haven’t been
babbling as much as usual about Spam, your new BFF. How come? Are you two
fighting again? Have you come to your senses and realized what a hopeless loser
she is?”

[ Okay, really don’t want to
talk about this...think fast. ]

“Uh, no, Sam’s fine. I just know
how much you two still hate each other, so I thought you’d appreciate it if I
didn’t start ‘babbling’ about her, as you so kindly put it.”

“Oh, how sweet of you. However,
I still don’t believe you. Over this whole break, you haven’t tried to force us
all to hang out together, even once. And as much as I may have appreciated it,
it’s out of character for you. You’re hiding something from me, Brookie, and you
should know by now that I’m going to figure it out eventually, so you might as
well just get it over with.”

[ Just to get her off my back, I
almost want to tell her everything that happened. You know, if I timed this
right, I bet I could get her to spit out that iced latte she’s sipping...that
sight might almost be worth it. But no, probably not a good idea. ]

With a sigh, Brooke decided to
go with the easiest option for now: denial. “I don’t know what you’re talking
about, Nic. I think college has made you paranoid.”

“Yeah, okay. Anyway, this
reminds me of the last time that I accused you of lying to me. Remember that
time a few days before you got home, when I called you, and you were acting all
weird and whispery? Yeah, what was THAT all about? I totally forgot about it
until now.”

Brooke’s eyes widened as she
practically choked on the frappaccino she was sipping.

[ Well that’s kind of ironic.
And we’ve now arrived at topic #2 that I didn’t want to talk about today. ]

“Um, just like I told you that
day. I was all disoriented because you had just woken me up, and I dunno, I was
probably still a little drunk or something, and walls ARE really thin...”

Brooke continued to ramble for a
bit, but she could feel her face flush and hear her voice rise in pitch. This
was not going well.

Nicole just smirked in a very
self-satisfied way. “Uh huh, whatever you say, McQueen. So I now know for a fact
that you’re trying -- and failing miserably, I might add -- to cover up
something that happened that morning, or the night before. Add that to the fact
that you’re not getting along with Spam...”

Brooke tried to interrupt, but
Nicole just shushed her calmly, and continued. “Right, so let’s say that these
two facts are related. And yes, they are facts, hun, so don’t even bother trying
to deny it. Anyway, that would lead me to my best guess at the moment, which is
that you slept with some guy that Spam was crushing on. So am I right?”

Brooke just gaped at Nic for a
second. “What? No!’”

“Hmmm. No, that would be too
simple, and you wouldn’t be trying so hard to pretend nothing had happened if
that’s all it was. So I’m close, but not exactly there. But I’m getting bored
with this game, so I’ll let it go. For now.”

[ Okay, that was way too close
for comfort. How does she DO that?? ]

Letting her mind wander once
again, Brooke considered the girl beside her as she idly looked through the
clothing rack at her fingertips. Over the past year and a half, Brooke had often
wondered how she and Nicole had ever been good friends.

[ Nic and Sam are so different.
Polar opposites. But I’ve thought of both of them as my best friend at some
point or another. I know Sam thinks I’m an idiot for forgiving Nicole. But what
Sam doesn’t understand is that Nic has always been a part of my life, and I
don’t know how to let her go. But I don’t trust her. I will never fully trust
Nicole ever again. I mean, how could I? And Nic knows it, too. She knows that
her power over me is a lot weaker than it used to be.

And then there’s Sam. What am I
going to do with that girl? She’s smart, and irritating, and funny, and
stubborn, and caring, and obnoxious, and if my vocabulary was as big as Sam’s
then I could keep going for a while. But now she can barely stand the sight of
me. And I miss her. ]

Brooke barely noticed as Nicole
went to try on some clothes. Nic had seemed to realize that getting Brooke to
focus on anything was a lost cause at that point.

[ I wonder if it’s possible for
me to love Sam and hate her at the same time. ]

Chapter 6

Sam woke up with a start, sweat
covering her body. She’d had that dream again. Well, she didn’t know whether to
call it a dream, or simply a memory while sleeping. Because it wasn’t like it
was some fictional product of her subconscious mind. It was just an instant
replay of that horrible night.

It was the night of Junior
Prom, and Sam, Brooke, and Harrison sat awkwardly at the restaurant. Sam didn’t
know why they had created this awful situation for themselves. She didn’t even
really want to date Harrison. But he was about to give his choice, to make the
final decision between long-term crush and long-term friend.

Suddenly, Brooke stood up.
“You know what? I don’t want to know. Because this is ridiculous, and it’s only
going to end badly. So I’m taking myself out of the running. And now I have to
go.”

And then she just left,
running from the building. Without thinking, Sam jumped up and followed, while a
stunned Harrison remained at the table with his head in his hands.

“This is not what I wanted.”
Brooke sounded so calm.

“This is not what I wanted,
Brooke, okay? Just stop!” Everything was getting out of control, and Sam felt
the threat of oncoming tears.

But Brooke just kept going,
out into the middle of the street. And roaring around the corner, the sound of
screeching tires. Sam saw the car, recognized it even, but couldn’t find her
voice right away. Then, shouting out desperately, “Brooke! No!”

Sam watched in horror as
Brooke stopped and turned to stare at the car in front of her. Both Brooke and
Sam seemed to be frozen in shock. But right at the last second, right when Sam
thought the car might be close enough for Brooke to see who was inside, Brooke
moved to her right, and Nicole swerved in the opposite direction. Still, it was
too late to avoid each other, and the edge of the car collided with Brooke’s
body with a sickening sound.

Finally, Sam found that she
could move again, and she was running down the stairs, running toward the heap
on the ground that she knew to be Brooke. Tears were streaming down her face at
this point, as she crouched down beside the moaning figure on the pavement.

“Brooke? Brooke, can you hear
me? You’re alright. Everything is going to be alright.”

“Sam?” Brooke’s eyes
fluttered open. There was a deep gash across her forehead, and her leg was bent
at an unnatural angle.

“Yes, I’m here, Brooke. I’m
here. What do you need? What can I do?”

“It hurts, Sammy. Why did she do it?”

Sam didn’t need to ask to
know about whom Brooke was talking. She brushed some hair out of Brooke’s eyes,
and found that her hands were shaking. “I don’t know. I don’t know. I’m so
sorry, Brooke. But you’ll be okay. Right? You’ll be okay. You have to be okay.”

“I’m not worried, Sam. I know
you’ll take care of me.”

Sam felt a hand on her
shoulder, and turned to see an EMT standing behind her. She hadn’t even heard
the sirens from the ambulance.

“Sorry, Miss. Can I get down
to see her? We have to get her on a stretcher, so we can take her to the
hospital.”

Sam silently stood up and
moved a little out of the way, so that the EMTs could work. She saw some more
people dealing with Nicole, who had crashed into a tree. As Brooke’s stretcher
was raised off the ground, Sam felt a weak hand reach out to her. She grasped
tightly onto Brooke’s hand, raising it to place a light kiss on the soft skin.
Her eyes locked with Brooke’s, and Sam could see the immense pain behind those
hazel eyes. She had to let go of Brooke’s hand briefly, as they lifted her into
the ambulance, but they reconnected as soon as Sam returned to her side.

As the ambulance door was
about to close, Sam caught a quick glimpse of a terrified Harrison, standing
outside. She had completely forgotten about him, but shouted out, “Call our
parents! Meet us at the hospital!”

Then her eyes returned to
Brooke’s, which were shut tightly in pain. She gave her hand a squeeze and
whispered soft encouragements. She tried to be strong, tried not to fall apart
in front of Brooke, as panicked thoughts ran through her mind.

[ Brooke’s strong. She’ll be
fine. But what if she’s not? I never really hated her. I don’t know what I’ll do
if she...no, I don’t even want to think it. She’ll be fine. She has to be. ]

Sam felt the tears still
spilling from her eyes and made no effort to stop them or brush them aside, as
the ambulance sped on towards the hospital.

It was then that Sam woke up
from the horrible memory of that night. It had happened almost two years ago,
but she still had that identical nightmare every once in a while. It had been a
long time since the last one, though. Probably not since first semester.

Now, Sam sat up in bed in her
dorm room, as her mind went through the rest of that hellish period in her life.

Waiting anxiously in the
hospital for news about Brooke. Finally speaking with the doctor -- Brooke’s
left leg was broken in two different places, she had a few broken ribs, and
there was some internal bleeding. Sitting beside Brooke’s hospital bed, as she
waited for her step-sister to wake up after surgery. Going with Brooke to
physical therapy. Spending almost all her time at the blonde’s side.

It had been an incredibly
difficult time for everyone involved. Once Brooke was able to focus on anything
other than the pain, she had become angry. Angry at anything and everything. Sam
was the only one who could ever get Brooke to calm down. It happened quickly and
naturally, the two of them becoming best friends. Sam didn’t really know why the
prospect of losing her step-sister had hit her so hard, but she didn’t question
it.

Her dream had made Sam want to
go check on Brooke. Reassure herself that Brooke really was okay. But Brooke
wasn’t just right next door, like at home. She was five floors down, and their
friendship still hadn’t completely recovered since that thing that happened,
almost four months ago.

Now, though, Sam was once again
surrounded by that horrible fear she had felt the night of Junior Prom -- fear
that she was losing Brooke. Brooke had been the first person to break down a few
of the walls that Sam had put up when her dad died. And while it was comforting,
in a way, to finally let her guard down and let someone inside, it was
terrifying too.

[ Maybe that’s why I freaked out
so much after we hooked up. Because it wasn’t just the fact that she was a girl.
It was the fact that she was Brooke, of all people. I had let her get too close.
]

Being with Brooke was so much
different than being with someone like George. Because even though he was a
great guy, George didn’t have the same kind of connection with Sam. With Brooke,
everything Sam felt, she felt more strongly. But Brooke got too close, so Sam
had to push her away.

[ But is it worth it? Because
now I have her at a safe distance, just like I wanted. And I miss her. ]

Sam sighed, confused as ever,
and lay back down, trying to will herself back into sleep.

~~~

At breakfast with Katie the next
morning, Sam was off in her own world, still mentally going through the ups and
downs of her relationship with Brooke, as she sullenly poked at the food on her
plate.

“Okay, so what’s up with you?”

Sam looked up in surprise; she
had almost forgotten that Katie was even there. She didn’t really know what the
girl was talking about though, so she pulled together her journalistic skills,
and went with the most eloquent response that she could come up with on the
spot.

“Huh?”

“Well, your bed is right against
the wall, so I know that you can’t have gotten up on the wrong side of the bed
-- it’s the same side of the bed that you get up on every day. And I know you’re
not a big morning person, but this...” She gestured vaguely at Sam’s slumped
form. “This is a whole new level of moodiness for you. So I repeat: what’s up
with you?”

Katie’s logic managed to get a
chuckle out of Sam, but then she simply sighed and returned to staring at her
plate. “I dunno. It’s just this dream I had last night. It got me thinking about
some things. But whatever, it’s not a big deal.”

“Let me guess, it has something
to do with Brooke, right?”

Sam looked up suspiciously.
“What makes you say that?”

Katie chuckled. “Oh, I don’t
know. Just the fact that whenever you’re in a bad mood lately, it’s because
you’re thinking about Brooke.”

“But seriously. Are you ever
going to tell me what happened with you two? Last semester, all was well in the
sunny land of the McSisters, but now...I dunno. It’s kind of been thawing out
lately, but it’s still definitely been a lot icier. You guys are like Greenland,
which you would think would be really nice and green and happy, but it’s
actually icier than Iceland. And I’m not a big fan of the cold. Which is why
it’s a total mystery, how I ended up in New York after growing up in Florida. It
is crazy cold in this town during the winter. I don’t know what I was thinking.
But anyway, that’s completely irrelevant to everything, and I have no idea why I
brought it up.”

Sam just stared at her friend
for a few seconds. “Have I ever told you that you can be very strange
sometimes?”

The question only brought a
large smile to Katie’s face. “Well, you have told me that before, yes, but it’s
been quite a while since the last time, so I guess I was due for a reminder. And
I see what you’re doing here, McPherson. I know you’re just trying to distract
me with insults, so that I won’t ask you any more about Brooke. And fine, if you
really want to be annoying like that, then I’ll let you. But you’ve got to fix
this, Sam, seriously. Granted, I haven’t known you that long, but I know that
you and Brooke were really great friends. And that should be worth fixing. So
suck it up, and go talk to her.”

Sam knew that Katie was right.
She had to do something.

[ Yeah, but easier said than done. ]

Chapter 7

Brooke walked into her apartment
and promptly collapsed onto the futon, exhausted.

“Long day?” Alexis poked her
head around the corner, having heard Brooke enter. Brooke immediately noticed
Alexis’ hair -- it was a soft shade of purple. Hadn’t it been bright red when
she left this morning?

“Ugh. Just about the longest of
the summer. There were two new girls today, which always makes things kind of
crazy, and one of my bosses left for vacation, so we were understaffed, and I
got to sit in on a counseling session, and it was really cool, but horribly
depressing at the same time.”

Brooke had decided to stay in
New York for the summer. She was working at a clinic for teens with eating
disorders, wanting a chance to help girls like herself, and also figuring that
it went well with her decision to major in psychology. And while it was
definitely rewarding, it was emotionally draining too.

“But nice hair, by the way. Not
many people could pull that off, but it looks good on you.”

“Oh yeah, thanks. Just felt like
changing it. Well hey, at least it’s the weekend. And I’m sure that Jason will
have a few plans to get us out of the apartment, so now you get to just relax
and have some fun for a few days.”

Just then, Jason walked into the
apartment as well, calling out, “Hello, my lovelies!” Spotting Brooke, still
slouched inelegantly over the futon, he commented, “What happened to you? We
need to get some caffeine in you, or something, hun. You know I love you, but I
have to say that ‘couch potato’ is not your best look.”

Brooke merely laughed, having
learned that Jason should rarely be taken seriously. Living with Alexis and
Jason had certainly turned out to be quite an adventure. None of them had known
each other well at first, but had been in one class together, and all needed a
place to stay for the summer months. And amazingly, it had worked out great.
They were all pretty different, but their personalities somehow meshed together
really well.

“Oh leave the poor girl alone,
she’s had a rough day. And I almost forgot, Brooke, you had a phone call a few
minutes before you got here.”

“Yeah? Who from?”

Alexis just smirked. “I’ll give you one guess.”

“Sam? Okay, thanks.”

Things were going a lot better
between the step-sisters. The awkwardness was pretty much gone, the fighting for
no reason was over, and they usually talked on the phone at least a few times
every week. In a way, Brooke thought that the distance of the summer had
actually helped their friendship. But she was confident that they’d keep moving
forward when Sam came back in a few weeks, at the end of August.

[ I’m just so glad that Sam took
that first step, and made us finally talk about everything.]

Brooke was nervous. Sam had
sounded pretty serious when she called on the phone, asking Brooke to meet her
in their favorite corner of nearby Washington Square Park. Brooke found the
brunette sitting by herself, anxiously bouncing her leg up and down and chewing
on a fingernail, as she stared off into space. Brooke sat down by her, giving
Sam a small smile in greeting. She really had no idea what this was all about.

“Sooooo....” Sam managed to
start the conversation, but failed to actually say anything.

“So.” Awkward pause. “What’s
up?”

“Well, okay. So here’s the
thing. And, I’d appreciate it if you just sit and listen for a bit, so I can try
to explain what I’m trying to say. And it might take me a little while to get
there, but I don’t want to get sidetracked, okay?”

Brooke heard the tension in
Sam’s voice, but with any luck, the girl’s harsh tone was an effect of
nervousness, not anger. She smiled in a way that she hoped was reassuring.
“Yeah, sure, Sam. Of course.”

Sam glanced briefly towards
her step-sister. Was that fear in Sam’s eyes? Why would Sam be afraid? When Sam
continued talking, Brooke was glad to hear that the harshness had left her
voice, although the tension remained. “Great. Well I had the dream again last
night. You know? The dream about the mess that was Junior Prom.”

[ Wow. Sam still has that
dream? I had no idea that it still bothered her. ]

“It had been a while. I’m
sure you remember when I used to have that dream almost every night. But I had
forgotten, I think. Forgotten what it felt like when I thought you were going to
die. And, well, it’s a pretty sucky feeling, to put it mildly. I mean, I’m sure
it’s not much, compared to how you felt. But I had to watch it happen, and I
couldn’t do anything. And when I realized that you might die, thinking that I
hated you... I mean, fuck, I just couldn’t let that happen, you know? But you
know all this. We’ve talked about it before, so I don’t know why I’m saying it
all over again. I don’t know what I’m trying to say.”

Brooke watched Sam close her
eyes, take in a big, shaky breath, and try to gather herself. She waited
quietly, knowing that Sam wasn’t done. She wanted to say something, though.
Wanted to jump up and wrap her arms around the brunette. Because Sam still cared
about her. Brooke had been so afraid that Sam no longer cared.

[ Oh, Sam. It’s okay, I
understand. At least, I think I do. I hope you’re trying to say what I think you
are. I hope you’re trying to say that you want it to be like before. That I’m
going to get my best friend back. ]

“I guess...I guess what I’m
trying to say is that...I want my best friend back. I don’t want to lose you. I
miss you, Brooke, and I know things have been weird between us lately, but I
think we’ve been through too much together to let one stupid night get in the
way of all that. And that night...at Charlie’s party...you said that you could
count on me, and that you trusted me to be there for you. I don’t want that to
not be true. I’m so sorry that it hasn’t been true lately. But I want it to be
true again.”

Brooke tried to stay serious
and focused on Sam, but she couldn’t keep a huge grin from spreading across her
face. Sam wasn’t looking at her, though, so couldn’t see Brooke’s reaction to
her words.

“So, I don’t know what your
thoughts are about this. I haven’t exactly been keeping up with your life this
semester, so you’ve probably made a bunch of new friends, and don’t really need
me anymore.”

But Brooke couldn’t keep
quiet any longer, and she finally gave in to her urge to hug Sam. Sam was
completely taken by surprise at first, but then settled gratefully into Brooke’s
arms. “How could you ever think that? Of course I need you! You’re my
Sammy...and I’ve really missed you.”

“Really?”

Brooke pulled back slightly,
but continued to hold Sam by the shoulders, so she could stare directly into
Sam’s eyes. “Yes, really. Sam, after that night...I didn’t know what to do. I
thought you hated me, were disgusted with me. And it was just so much easier to
avoid you, because being around you only made me nervous. And I hated that. I
hated that I couldn’t just talk to you, and make all the awkwardness go away,
but I didn’t know how. I mean, I barely even remember what happened, so I didn’t
know how to even approach talking about it.”

Brooke could feel herself
blushing, and saw the same reaction with Sam, but she was determined to maintain
eye contact. Still, she let her hands drop from Sam’s shoulders. Brooke didn’t
think that she could handle too much physical contact with Sam while they had
this particular conversation.

“No, I didn’t hate you! I’m
sorry if I made you think that. I just...I dunno, same thing as you, I guess. I
was just so freaked out by everything, and I didn’t know what to do, and you
know how I hate it when I don’t know what to do. And you have to admit, it’s
always been so much easier to fight with you, Brooke, than to actually
communicate in any meaningful way.”

Brooke smiled in response,
acknowledging the truth in Sam’s words. She couldn’t keep the hesitation out of
her voice or her eyes, though, as she asked, “Do...do you remember much? About
that night?”

Sam looked quickly away in
embarrassment, chewing on her lower lip thoughtfully, before replying. “Um,
well, not really. Not too much. Bits and pieces of stuff. I remember the party,
and dancing. And then some of....you know. But it’s all pretty vague and foggy.
And then I was surprised to find that I was kinda sore the next day, and-- ”

A jolt of panic shot through
Brooke, and she interrupted Sam, only managing to speak aloud a few words out of
all the ones running through her head. “Oh god. I didn’t....did I? I mean....you
hadn’t....your first....oh Sam, I...”

Somehow, Sam was able to
understand what Brooke was trying to get across, and immediately tried to
reassure the blonde. “No! I mean...no, I don’t think you did. That’s not what I
meant. I wasn’t sore because of that. I’m pretty sure that I’m, you know, still
technically a virgin.”

Sam’s face was a bright, beet
red by now, but Brooke visibly relaxed.

“Oh, thank god. Because, I
meant it when I told you that your first time should be special, Sam. And if I
had reduced it to just some drunken hook-up... Well, I’m just glad that I
didn’t. You deserve more than that, Sam.”

“Um. Thanks. I guess. Yeah.”

[ I can’t believe we’re
discussing whether or not I took Sam’s virginity. This is definitely not a
conversation I expected to have today. Or any other day, for that matter. ]

Suddenly, a different thought
occurred to Brooke. “Wait a second...so if that’s not what you meant, then --
and I’m not sure I really want to know the answer to this, but -- why WERE you
sore?”

“Ummm, well... Okay, maybe
‘sore’ wasn’t exactly the right word. And again, I only remember this very
vaguely. But, it’s just, um...well, my shoulder the next day....”

Brooke was confused. What did
Sam’s shoulder have anything to do with this?

“Well, I’m pretty sure that
you bit me.”

Brooke’s eyes widened in
horror. “I did WHAT?!?”

Brooke watched Sam struggle
with embarrassment, as she mumbled, “You weren’t trying to hurt me or anything.
I barely even noticed it at the time.” Then Sam’s eyes locked onto Brooke’s, and
her expression changed suddenly, with Sam breaking into uncontrollable laughter.

“Oh, Brooke. Your face is
just priceless right now.”

“What, so I didn’t bite you??
Was that just a horrible joke?”

“No, you DID bite me. But
your face still looked hilarious just now.” Sam continued to laugh, even as she
struggled to speak at the same time.

Brooke continued to stare in
shock at Sam for a few moments. She bit Sam? Really? She had never bit anyone in
bed before. Should she be worried about this? But finally, Sam’s infectious
laughter and the ridiculousness of the whole situation caught up with Brooke,
and she too burst into a fit of giggles. The girls practically fell on top of
each other, trying to control themselves.

And that was it. That was all
that was needed to break the solid tension between them, and their relationship
had gradually but steadily returned to the strong friendship they had shared at
the end of high school and beginning of college.

With her mind finally back in
the present, Brooke remembered that she should call Sam.

“Hey Sam, what’s up? You called
earlier?”

“Hi! Okay, so guess what? I’ve
finished up work for the summer, as you know, and was getting really bored at
home, sooooo...I came back early!”

“Wait, you’re in New York?
That’s great! Where are you?”

“I’m at the airport. And I’m
cheap, and don’t really want to start spending my new hard-earned cash, so I was
wondering if you wouldn’t mind being awesome and borrowing Jason’s car to come
pick me up? Luke offered to pay for a cab, but I don’t want to make him do that.
So, yeah... Pretty, pretty, please, with a cherry on top?”

Brooke didn’t at all mind going
to get Sam, and she was sure it would be fine with Jason, but something else
caught her attention, and caused her forehead to crease in confusion.

“Luke? Who’s Luke?”

There was a brief silence, and
then Brooke heard Sam whisper, “Shit!” before she continued, nervously, “Oh
right, I haven’t exactly told you about him, yet, have I? Um, well, Luke’s my
boyfriend.”

[ Boyfriend? Since when has Sam had a boyfriend?? ]

PART 2 -- Sophomore Year

Chapter 8

Sam had no idea what movie they
were watching. She had started off paying attention, but somehow that just
wasn’t working out. She figured that, at this point, trying to understand what
was going on simply wasn’t the most productive use of her time.

Instead, Sam decided to think
more about the two people sitting on the couch on either side of her: Luke and
Brooke. Brooke had been the last one to arrive to movie night, and Katie,
Alexis, and Jason had claimed all other available seating in the common room, so
Brooke was forced to share the small couch with Sam and Luke. Not telling Brooke
about him had been stupid, Sam knew. She didn’t even really understand why she
hadn’t.

Things had been going so
great that summer. She was enjoying her internship at the newspaper, she and
Brooke were talking a lot, Mac was officially the cutest kid ever, and her mom
and Mike were only mildly annoying. All was well.

And then she met Luke. And he
was great. Nice, intelligent, worldly, and mighty fine eye-candy as well. They
were part of the nice little quartet of interns -- Sam from NYU, Luke from
Columbia, Julie from Northwestern, and Ethan from UCLA. She had honestly been
completely surprised when Luke asked her out. Sam had been perfectly happy just
as friends, but thought she might as well give it a shot. If it didn’t work out,
then New York was certainly a big enough city that she knew she’d never have to
see him again after the summer, if she didn’t want to.

So it would only be logical
for Sam to talk about him to Brooke, her once-again-best friend. But she didn’t.
At first, it just didn’t come up during their conversations. Sam would start
with the intention of telling Brooke, but then would get side-tracked, and would
forget all about him until after she had hung up. And then it seemed weird to
mention him, once they’d already been dating for two weeks. How could she
explain why she hadn’t said anything earlier? So she convinced herself that she
wanted to wait and tell Brooke in person. Plus, since their
newly-renewed-best-friendship, Sam worried that telling Brooke about Luke would
change things between them once again. Things with Luke were good. Things with
Brooke were good. Why shake everything up?

But then she had to go and
ruin it all at the airport. She didn’t even think about it. Luke was standing
right there next to her, also on the phone and in the middle of assuring his
mother that they had arrived safely, and she just totally forgot that Brooke
didn’t know that he existed.

Sam had been really looking
forward to seeing Brooke, but that reunion at the airport had been so much worse
than originally anticipated. Because even though she hadn’t talked to Brooke
about Luke, she HAD talked to Luke about Brooke. So, while Luke greeted Brooke
warmly, exclaiming, “Sam’s told me so much about you!”...Brooke smiled -- but in
that way that Sam knew was nowhere even close to genuine -- and replied, “Oh,
really? How sweet of Sam. And sorry, but I have a pretty shitty memory, so
you’re going to have to remind me about all the things that she may or may not
have told me about you.” Fortunately, Luke didn’t seem to hear the sarcasm in
Brooke’s voice.

[ Still, I guess it wasn’t quite
as bad as it could have been, at least. Brooke was obviously confused and hurt
for a little while, but now she seems to be okay. And since then, she’s been
nothing but nice to Luke. But still, something’s off. ]

“So, how’d you like the movie, Sam?”

Luke’s voice broke into the
middle of her thoughts. She turned to stare at him for a few seconds before
pulling herself together, and replying, “Uh, it was great!”

On her other side, Sam heard
Brooke chuckle. “You weren’t paying at all attention, were you?”

Sam turned again, this time in
Brooke’s direction, with an indignant protest on the tip of her tongue. But as
she caught sight of Brooke’s amused expression, she changed her mind and grinned
sheepishly. “No, not at all. Just couldn’t seem to keep my mind settled in one place.”

Luke spoke again, with Sam’s
gaze returning to him. “Aw, I thought you would like this one, too. You tired,
babe? Or just not interested in the movie?”

[ Well, neither, really. ]

But Brooke was actually the one
to answer, and Sam once again turned to face her. “Knowing Sam, it’s probably
neither. Last year, Sam, Katie, and I took an American politics course. It was a
great class, but Sam could just never stay focused. Her notes would start out
great, and then gradually get less and less detailed, as her mind wandered
elsewhere. And adding caffeine into the situation only seemed to make her
daydreaming start earlier. So inevitably, she’d end up asking to borrow our
notes, of course. And then we’d get into a conversation about how interesting
the course was, and Sam would vow to pay closer attention the next time, but she
never would. If she hadn’t been so adorable about it all, it would have been
highly annoying,” Brooke teased.

Sam lightly smacked Brooke on
the arm, as Katie grinned and added, “Well in Sam’s defense, Professor Bailey
did have a highly monotonous voice.”

Sam rolled her eyes and admitted
sarcastically, “Yes, it’s true, I’m a horrible, unfocused student, and Brooke
and Katie saved my ass many times last year.”

When Luke touched her lightly on
the shoulder to get her attention, Sam’s neck started to hurt a little, from all
the changing of directions. “Hey, give yourself a bit more credit, Sam.”
Addressing the rest of the room, he continued. “Sam was totally everyone’s
go-to-gal this summer. Out of all us interns, Sam was the most likely to always
have all her shit together. She made the rest of us look bad a few times too
many.” Turning back to Sam, he added, “So that pretty head of yours was
definitely not ‘unfocused’ this summer.” He leaned forward, giving her a light
peck on the lips. Sam was still uncomfortable with any kind of PDA in front of
her friends, so she smiled at him, but pulled back slightly.

“Well, even if she is a horrible
student -- just kidding, Sam! -- there’s no denying that she’s a brilliant
journalist.”

Sam turned and searched Brooke’s
face for sarcasm, but saw only sincerity. She smiled happily. “Thanks, Brooke.
I’m surprised you’d say that, after all the shit I put you through in high
school.”

At those words, Jason jumped
into the conversation. “I would LOVE to have known you two in high school. I’ve
heard some stories...your arguments sound like SO much fun.”

Katie turned to Jason and
emphatically stated, “Yeah, not so much. I’ve witnessed a few of those infamous
fights, and ‘fun’ is not exactly how I’d describe them. Brooke and Sam were
totally Greenland.”

Sam just laughed as everyone else looked to Katie in confusion.

~~~

Later that night, Katie was
reading at her desk, while Sam simply lay in bed, staring at the ceiling. Luke
had wanted her to come back to Columbia with him (where he was lucky enough to
have a single), but she didn’t really feel like it. Maybe she’d go over tomorrow
night, but it had been too late when they all finished talking.

Something about that evening’s
conversation was bugging her, though. It had been a perfect example of how
something was “off” between Luke and Brooke. As always, they had both been
perfectly civil to each other. But Sam couldn’t help but notice that both of
them had a tendency to bring up stories that excluded the other one. Luke and
Brooke had now known each other for over three months, so there were plenty of
situations that involved both of them, but they seemed to avoid those topics of
conversation. Sam wasn’t sure if they were actually doing it on purpose, or if
she was just paranoid.

[ It’s almost like they’re
competing for my attention, in this really passive-aggressive way. But no,
that’s weird. I’m just making a big thing out of nothing. ]

“Hey Katie? You like Luke,
right?”

“Yeah, he’s really sweet. And
he’s obviously into you, which is just adorable. Why? Is everything okay?
Because if anything’s wrong, then I’m totally on your side, and I’ll go kick his
ass.”

Sam laughed. “No, everything’s
fine, and no ass-kicking will be required. Thanks, though, I appreciate the
enthusiasm.” After a minute of silence, Sam added, “Do you think Brooke likes
him?”

“Uh, sure, I think so. They’ve
always seemed cool with each other. But Sam, who cares if I like him, or Brooke
does? What matters is whether or not YOU like him. You do like him, don’t you?
You’ve acted like you like him.”

“Yeah, I do like him. He’s
great,” Sam answered honestly.

[ So why do I care so much what Brooke thinks? ]

Chapter 9

Brooke struggled with her
luggage and her keys, before the door suddenly swung open from the inside, and a
grinning Alexis appeared in front of her.

“Brooke! You’re back!” she
shouted in excitement, before pulling the blonde into a tight hug.

Brooke grinned, and though she
was somewhat surprised at the eagerness of her normally reticent roommate, she
happily returned the hug with equal enthusiasm. It had been great to go home,
but it was nice to have a good friend and roommate to return to as well.

“So, your hair’s still purple, I
see. I thought you were going to change it up again.”

Alexis ran a hand absentmindedly
through her hair, and then helped Brooke drag all her stuff inside their room.
“Well I dyed it blue over the break, in honor of Hanukah. But then it faded to
this horrible gray color, which wasn’t so hot, and the purple is my favorite
shade so far, so I just decided to be boring and go back to this.”

Brooke laughed. “Damn, Alex. I
think you’re the only one who could ever think of purple hair as boring.”

Alexis just smirked. “Anyway,
I’ve been back for hours, but no one else is around yet, so I’ve just been
waiting here with nothing to do. Where’s Sam? You two didn’t kill each other,
did you? According to Katie, that almost happened last year, when you went home
for the holidays.”

“Actually, yeah, she was getting
on my nerves, so I decided that the simplest thing to do was just to kill her.
The parentals weren’t too happy about it, but they’ll get over it. Hope you
don’t mind. I know you and Sam had become friends too.” Alexis chuckled
amusedly, as Brooke continued. “No, she just went to her own room to unpack a
little and maybe take a nap. So yeah, things with Sam are...good.” Brooke smiled
hesitantly to herself, as she thought about her evolving relationship with her
step-sister.

When she looked back to her
roommate, Brooke noticed that Alexis was eyeing her suspiciously. “Okay, you’ve
got this weird contemplative look on your face.” The ringing of Alexis’ phone
cut off anything else Alexis meant to say. “I should probably get that. But
we’re going to talk about this later! I can tell that there’s more to things
than what you’re telling me.”

[ Well I have to admit that
she’s right. Everything certainly is a little more complicated than just “Things
with Sam are good.” But I think I need to mask my emotions better. Between Nic
and Alexis, my friends can apparently read me way too easily. ]

~~~

Two weeks later, and Brooke
couldn’t believe that she had let Jason drag her here. She stood in line with an
even-more-than-usually-excited Jason, and an amused Alexis, as they waited to
get into the club. Her thoughts returned to the conversation that had brought
them there.

It was the first night after
arriving back from Winter break. Jason had been the next one to arrive back at
the dorm, after Brooke and Sam. Katie wasn’t returning until the next day, and
Sam was off somewhere with Luke, so Brooke, Alexis, and Jason sat hanging out
and catching up in their favorite local coffee shop.

They made an
interesting-looking group -- an “All-American” blonde beauty; a girl with purple
hair and dark, smoky eyeliner; and a bald, clean-cut black man.

After a good half hour of
chatting, Jason brought up the topic of Sam and Luke. “It’s too bad they didn’t
come out with us. I know Luke’s taken, and not inclined my way, but I can’t say
that I mind having a little more testosterone around sometimes. No offense,
girls.”

Brooke sighed. “Ugh, no. I
have seen way too much of that boy over the last few weeks.”

“I thought you liked Luke.”
Alexis looked at Brooke questioningly. “Does this have anything to do with the
reason that you got all thoughtful when I mentioned Sam, earlier? Everything IS
okay with you two, right?”

“Yeah, everything’s fine.
Really. And I do like Luke. I guess. He just seemed to constantly be hanging
around. Though I’m sure Sam was happy about it, it sucked that he lives so close
to us. Sometimes I wanted to spend time just with Sam, but he was almost always
there, and it got kind of annoying. I think even Sam was getting a little tired
of him by the end of break. My dad and Jane loved him, though, and were
constantly hinting that I should try and find someone like him for myself.”
Brooke grimaced slightly at the thought of her very-own Luke.

There was a short silence as
all three simultaneously sipped at their drinks. Then, Brooke suddenly blurted
out, “Jason, how did you know you were gay?”

Brooke cringed the second the
words left her mouth. She hadn’t been planning on starting this particular
conversation so soon. It just happened, before she could stop herself.

Two pairs of eyes widened and
stared at Brooke. Then, a huge grin spread across Jason’s face. “Oh. My. God.
Are you saying what I think you’re saying? Because I did wonder about you when
we first met, but I thought I was completely off base, and my gaydar just needed
some tweaking. But apparently not! This is SO exciting!”

“I don’t know what I’m
saying. I just got to thinking about some things recently, and it’s all pretty
confusing. I dunno.” Brooke sighed and ran her hand through her hair, feeling
the start of what was possibly an oncoming headache.

Alexis reached out and gently
touched Brooke’s shoulder, getting her attention. “You know you can talk to us
about any of this, right? If you’re questioning stuff or whatever, maybe it
would help to talk it out. But you totally don’t have to if you don’t want to.
Right, Jason?” Alexis looked pointedly at Jason, apparently hoping he would
control his obvious eagerness for continuing the conversation.

“Hey, she’s the one who
brought it up, not me. I think she wants to talk about it. But yeah, I’m totally
there for ya, Brookie, whatever you want. Oh, and to answer the original
question...with the benefit of hindsight, I think I probably had a crush on my
seventh grade math teacher. He was also my soccer coach and was absolutely
gorgeous. But throughout high school, I actually dated a bunch of girls. I was a
pretty big jock back then, if you’d believe it, and I went to the gym all the
time. Of course, I probably paid a little too close attention to all the other
hot bodies working out around me. And sophomore year, I was on a date with some
girl, and had agreed to watch the movie, ‘How Stella Got Her Groove Back.’ I
don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Taye Diggs is a beautiful, beautiful man. So
that was kind of my official awakening. I didn’t come out, except for a few
close friends, until the end of senior year, though. So, to sum it all up, Taye
Diggs is how I knew I was gay.”

Jason then turned his
attention back to Brooke and grinned. “So, Brooke...how did YOU know you were
gay?”

[ Oh, god. I should have
known that he would have a field day with this. Oh well. ]

“I DON’T know that I’m gay.
That’s the whole point! But yeah, it’s slightly possible that I might be. Or at
least bi. Maybe. I dunno.”

Jason’s expression softened
at Brooke’s obvious distress. “Look, hun, I’m sorry I’ve been jumping all over
you. I know this can be really confusing and difficult and shit. I just want to
help. You know that, right? But Alex is right. It would probably help to talk it
out, I think. I wish I had had someone to talk to when I started dealing with
all this.”

Brooke smiled gratefully at
her two friends, took a deep breath, and tried to explain what she was feeling.
It was hard to point to anything specific. Sam had been watching “Buffy” DVDs,
and suddenly got into the idea of watching other stuff that some of the main
actors were in.

So one night, Brooke, Sam,
and Luke found themselves watching “Imagine Me & You,” a movie that none of them
had heard of, but it had the actor who played Giles. Brooke got a lot more
invested into the story than she had expected to. It got some thoughts running
through her head. About how she certainly wouldn’t mind if Lena Headey came
along and swept her off her feet. That was the simple explanation. Brooke chose
not to explain that she was possibly developing a major crush on Sam. And she
certainly wasn’t prepared to tell them that she had actually already hooked up
with Sam. But she wasn’t sure if that counted, anyway, since neither of them
really remembered much. While watching the movie, Brooke had been very aware
that she, Sam, and Luke kind of formed a similar triangle to Luce, Rachel, and
Heck. Except in her own situation, Brooke was the odd-one-out. But she wasn’t
quite ready to talk about all that yet.

So now here Brooke was, fake ID
in hand, about to enter her first gay club. Jason, the only one of them who had
been there before, eagerly led the way over to the bar. “In honor of Brooke’s
introduction to experimenting with her lezzy side and Alex’s willingness to be
our token straight girl, first round’s on me!”

As the shot of tequila slid down
her throat, Brooke took some time to scout the place out. It was pretty crowded,
and there seemed to be close to equal numbers of guys and girls. There was an
open dance floor leading right up to the bar, with a bunch of seating around the
edges. There was also a small balcony overlooking the main area, with a sign
indicating that some more seats and the restrooms could be found upstairs.

Somehow, Jason had managed to
spot a few friends of his across the room. Each grabbing another drink, they
maneuvered their way over to the table. After the standard introductions, Brooke
allowed the conversation to flow around her, as she turned to take in the scene.

More out of habit than anything
else, Brooke first found her eyes searching out the males in her vicinity.

[ Well, I have to admit that I
still think guys are pretty attractive. But these ones certainly aren’t
interested in me, and I’m not here to look for guys, anyway. ]

Next, Brooke let her gaze fall
to the many women around her. Her heart beat faster, as she allowed herself to
freely check out another woman for the first time. Soon, a light peal of
laughter to her left caught Brooke’s attention. Turning in that direction, she
found herself staring at a tall brunette, standing nearby in a small group of
people.

[ My god, she’s gorgeous. ]

Just then, the girl happened to
look directly towards Brooke, and their eyes locked. The girl smirked slightly,
and Brooke quickly turned to face straight ahead, mortified to be caught
looking.

[ Fuck. That was SO not smooth. ]

As the evening progressed,
Brooke actually found herself having more fun than she thought she would. She
was pleasantly tipsy, but while several girls had hit on her, asking her to
dance, her only foray onto the dance floor was when she and Alexis sandwiched a
giggling Jason between them. She had occasionally spotted “her girl” -- because
yes, Brooke already thought of the striking girl as hers -- a few more times,
only allowing herself some subtle (at least she hoped they were subtle) glances
in her direction. She didn’t know why this girl had caught her attention so
easily, but Brooke had to admit that her dancing form was very nice to look at.

Now, she leaned on the balcony
railing, surveying the mass of bodies below her. Alexis and Jason had stayed
close to Brooke all night, not wanting to abandon her on her first time at a
place like this. But Alexis was currently outside getting a bit of fresh air,
and when a hot guy had asked Jason to dance, Brooke smiled and assured him that
she would be perfectly fine on her own for a bit. So now she stood, nursing her
rum and coke, and subconsciously looking around for her girl. She couldn’t find
her, though, and started to think that she might have left.

Brooke felt more than saw
someone come and stand next to her, assuming a similar pose of leaning against
the balcony. Her new companion cleared her throat, and then put her hand out for
Brooke to shake. “Hi, I’m Liz.”

[ Oh god. Okay, calm down, don’t
be an idiot. I’ve always been able to deal with guys easily, so this shouldn’t
be any different, right? ]

“Nice to meet you, Brooke. I
don’t mean to embarrass you, but I couldn’t help but notice you looking at me
earlier. I was waiting to see if you’d come up to me, but you haven’t, so when I
saw you here, I thought I might as well come introduce myself.” Noticing the
somewhat shocked look on Brooke’s face, she asked, “Shit, I haven’t weirded you
out too much, have I? My friends always tell me I can sometimes be too
aggressive. Sorry.”

“Uh, no. Not at all.” Brooke
found herself smiling back into the warm face in front of her. She downed the
last of her drink, and then, before she could stop herself, Brooke asked, “Do
you want to dance?”

[ Shit. Did I really just ask
her to dance? I can’t believe I just asked that. ]

Liz smiled brightly. “I’d love
to. Let’s go.” And grabbing Brooke’s hand, she led the way back down the stairs
and out onto the dance floor.

They started off somewhat
awkwardly, with Liz initiating some light touches between them. But, as one song
led to several more, and Brooke got into the feel of things, they slowly got
closer and closer together, until Brooke felt Liz’s hands on her hips, and she
slung one arm around Liz’s shoulders. Liz was certainly a better dancer than any
guy she had ever been with. Brooke closed her eyes, letting herself go. This
felt familiar, somehow. It felt right.

And before she knew what
happened, she was being kissed. Brooke was shocked at first, and almost pulled
away. But then, without letting herself think about it too much, Brooke was
kissing back. It was a nice, gentle kiss. The soft pressure against her lips was
different from kissing guys, but in a good way, she thought. Then the mouth
against Brooke’s opened slightly, as her tongue ran lightly across Brooke’s
bottom lip.

On one hand, Brooke knew that it
was a very nice kiss. It felt good. But on the other hand, something felt very
wrong. And suddenly, as she caught a whiff of lavender, it hit her. Because Liz
looked kind of like Sam. And in her mind, she had been kissing Sam, not Liz. But
Sam smelled like fresh apples, not lavender. And Liz was taller. It was all
wrong.

Suddenly, Brooke felt very
claustrophobic. She gently pushed Liz away from her, breaking the kiss. “I’m so
sorry, Liz. I can’t do this. I have to go.” And without another word, although
she could hear Liz calling after her, Brooke turned and squeezed her way towards
the door. Jason and Alexis, who had witnessed the entire thing, quickly followed
her outside, worried about the rapid change of events.

“Brooke, are you okay? What
happened?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. It’s just...it
was too much. I couldn’t...I dunno. I had a lot of fun, honestly. Thanks for
taking me out. But can we go home, now?”

Sitting in the cab, joking
around with her two friends, Brooke finally felt herself relax again. She was
glad that they hadn’t pushed her for more information.

[ Well, I guess that answers the
question of whether or not I like Sam. ]

WARNING: Heterosexuality ahead.
This chapter is rated R.

Chapter 10

Sam woke up, but didn’t yet want
to open her eyes. Stretching, she was surprised to feel another body in bed next
to her. Her eyes shot open.

[ Oh, right. Of course. That was
silly. Who else would be in my bed? ]

A half-naked Luke stirred,
reaching an arm around Sam’s waist, but didn’t wake.

Looking at the clock, she saw
that it was still early, so let herself relax back into Luke’s arms. She shifted
positions, and felt a sudden and unexpected discomfort. And then it all came
flooding back to her. She remembered what had happened. How could she have
forgotten??

Luke and Sam had been dating
for almost six and a half months. Everything was going smoothly. At least, it
was most of the time. Sometimes Luke got too clingy, but then Sam would pull
back a little bit, and he’d understand and would pull back as well without Sam
needing to ask him to, and everything would be good again.

Things had been going well
for a while now, and Sam was very comfortable with the relationship. Luke had
been acting a bit strange, though, for about the past week. She knew he was
taking her out to eat, tonight, but he hadn’t told her where. He was being
altogether mysterious about the whole evening, but had told her to dress
semi-formally. She tried to think...she hadn’t forgotten any special occasion,
had she?

A knock on the door broke
through her thoughts. Sam was nervous, but didn’t really know why. She wished
Katie were here, but her roommate’s parents happened to be in New York, so she
was staying with them in their hotel room for the night. Opening the door, Sam
found a grinning Luke, bearing a nice bouquet of flowers. “Hello, my lovely.
Ready for a night out on the town?”

Forty-five minutes later, Sam
and Luke were seated at a nice Italian restaurant on the Upper East Side. She
recognized it as the place where his cousin worked, and the connection had
gotten them a bottle of wine, even though they were both underage. Luke cleared
his throat, and raised his glass. Sam raised hers as well, curious as to where
he was going with all this.

“Well, here’s to the start of
what I hope will be an enjoyable evening. Happy Valentine’s Day, my dear.”

Sam giggled and looked at
Luke questioningly. “Um, I hate to break it to you, but you’re about a week
ahead of schedule. You do know that Valentine’s Day is traditionally on the
14th, right? Today’s only the 8th, Luke.”

If anything, Luke’s grin only
got wider. “This is true. BUT, if my suspicions are correct, then I’m guessing
that someone like you doesn’t really like to buy into the whole Valentine’s Day
commercial craziness. Am I right?”

“Well yeah, I guess so. I
mean, it’s an overrated day that was basically given meaning by Hallmark, in
order to make us buy lots of stuff. Plus, Valentine’s Day when you’re single
sucks, and no good holiday should make anyone feel bad. But anyway, what’s your
point?”

[ I thought I had gotten
pretty good at understanding him, but I have absolutely no idea where he’s going
with this. ]

“Well, it all really comes
down to my second suspicion about you. Which is that, underneath your hard
exterior, you’re actually quite the romantic. And why shouldn’t you get a nice
Valentine’s Day, just because it’s overly-commercialized? So, I’m preempting
Hallmark, and declaring today to be our very own Valentine’s Day. Tonight’s our
chance to do all the cheesy couple things that you would be way too mortified to
actually do on the 14th. Does that work for you?”

Sam laughed out loud, and
couldn’t contain her smile. “As crazy as that sounds, it may just be the most
romantic thing anyone’s ever said to me.”

The candlelit dinner was
followed by ice skating at Rockefeller Center, and then a cozy ride through
Central Park in a horse-drawn carriage.

[ Luke was right. Tonight has
been so much fun, but there’s no way that I would ever do these things on
Valentine’s. Way too cliché. ]

When they got back to Sam’s
dorm, she invited him up to her room, not wanting the night to end yet. She had
only had a little bit of wine with dinner, but she felt almost intoxicated with
the whole evening. And when she stared into Luke’s eyes, she was taken aback by
the depth of the emotion she saw there. Was it love? Did Luke love her? Did she
love Luke? She honestly hadn’t really thought much about it. And for the first
time in a while, Sam felt a shot of desire course through her. She had certainly
gotten fairly physical with Luke before, but he was always the one to initiate
it, and while it definitely wasn’t unpleasant, it wasn’t something she actively
wanted.

[ But now...now everything
feels perfect. Luke has been nothing short of amazing for six months, and he’s
never pushed me to do more than I wanted to, even though I’m sure that most guys
would’ve expected to be able to sleep with their girlfriends by now. Brooke said
that my first time should be special. Well, I don’t think that I love him, but
tonight’s been wonderful, tonight’s been special. There’s nothing wrong with
rewarding him for that, right? ]

Luke was looking at her
curiously, and Sam suddenly realized that she’d been silently staring at him.
She smiled, before walking over to him, where he sat in the chair by her desk,
and reaching out to run her hand through his hair. “Thank you for tonight.”

He stood up and gazed into
her eyes, then brought his lips down to hers. The passion between them escalated
quickly, but Sam started to feel somewhat awkward, realizing that she didn’t
really know what to do.

Luke led her back to her bed.
First, Sam made a point of staying upright, simply sitting on the bed, but
allowed his hands to wander over her body. Luke moaned into her mouth when Sam
leaned back on the bed, pulling him with her. She jumped a little when she felt
the bulge in his pants press against her.

He pulled back slightly. “You okay?”

Sam just nodded, as she
didn’t trust her voice to work correctly. It had suddenly become so much more
real. This was actually happening. She tried to keep herself from freaking out.
Tried to just let herself go. Eventually, as Luke kissed his way down to her
neck, she managed to relax a little more. But it was strange...she felt the
pressure of Luke above her, but she somehow still felt detached from what was
going on.

[ Right now, I almost just
want to get this over with. Just want to know what all the fuss is about. Brooke
would definitely not approve of this kind of thinking. But fuck, why am I
thinking about Brooke right now?? ]

“Luke...do you...do you have
a condom?”

Luke froze all motion, then
lifted himself up to look at Sam. “Um, yeah. I have one. But...Sam, are you sure
about this? Because I really don’t want you to--”

Sam interrupted him by
reaching up and stroking his cheek. “It’s okay. I’m sure. I want this.” Sam
wasn’t sure that she really wanted it, but hoped that she would convince
herself, as well as Luke.

She apparently sounded
convincing enough for Luke, who happily pulled off his shirt and reached down to
his belt buckle.

When Luke first entered her,
Sam cringed in pain. Luke didn’t see it, though, as his eyes were closed in
pleasure. When she asked about the condom, she hadn’t meant for the foreplay to
end, but once he had gotten the go-ahead, Luke had seemed eager to move forward
before she changed her mind. He was very gentle with her, but it still hurt.

As he slowly moved inside
her, the pain diminished slightly, but it still wasn’t exactly comfortable. She
enjoyed the feel of him sucking on her neck and collarbone, though, so she tried
to focus more on that. Luke brought his face back up to hers, mumbling about how
good she felt and how beautiful she was. Sam smiled weakly in response.

His movements sped up, and
Sam simply clung to him, trying to ground herself, to shake off some of the
overwhelming loss of control that she felt.

And then it was over. Luke
shuddered, crying out in ecstasy, and then collapsed on top of her, breathing
hard. He kissed her, grinning blissfully. “That was fantastic, Sam. You’re
amazing. Thank you.” And he rolled off of her, cuddling up to her side.

Sam felt weird, lying there
naked, so had got out some pajamas, and Luke had pulled his boxers back on. She
lay awake long after Luke drifted off. She couldn’t figure out how she felt. Her
mind raced, trying to work it all out, before she finally fell into an exhausted
sleep.

[ Oh god. I can’t believe I
actually had sex with Luke last night. Do I regret it? No, not really. But I’m
not exactly ecstatic about it either. ]

Sam turned on her side, studying
Luke’s sleeping form. She wondered where everything would go from there. Would
the relationship between them change? Would Luke expect to have sex a lot now?

[ Well, at least the sex will
probably get better. Right? It has to get better. ]

A/N: Hope you don’t hate me for
the hetero sex in this one...I know it’s not exactly what a lot of you (most of
you? all of you?) are looking for. Sorry about that! But it’ll get better.
Eventually.

Chapter 11

Brooke frowned, as she felt a
shadow pass in front of the sun, which had previously been comfortably shining
on her. She reluctantly opened one eye, squinting up at whatever obstacle was
currently in the way of her perfect tan.

Sam stood in front of her,
grinning. And wearing a very sexy green bikini.

[ Damn, where are my sunglasses?
If I had them, then I could safely ogle Sam. ]

Brooke studiously kept her eyes
from wandering over Sam’s body. Instead, she managed a fairly accurate
impression of “nonchalant annoyance,” as she glared at her step-sister. “What do
you want, Sam? You’re in the way.”

“I want you to get up off your
lazy ass, and come swimming with me!”

“What, are you crazy? My hair
was acting all funky this morning, and it took me a while to get it right.
There’s no way I’m going to mess with it.”

Sam just scoffed. “Oh, come on.
It’s Spring Break. We’re in Florida. On a beach. And the ocean’s probably about
eighty degrees. Katie and Alex are already in there. You HAVE to go swimming!
Besides, your hair always looks good, so no worries.”

And with that, Sam reached down,
grabbing one of Brooke’s hands in both of her own, and heaved the reluctant
blonde upwards off the towel.

“Saaaaaaam.” Brooke extended the
name into a protesting whine. But Sam was stronger than she looked, and she
apparently wasn’t taking “no” for an answer.

So Brooke found herself standing
next to a triumphant Sam, who quickly kneeled in the sand to pull down Brooke’s
shorts, leaving her in an equally stunning blue, white, and pink striped bikini.

Brooke, who had several
fantasies involving Sam undressing her, felt a deep blush spread across her
face. She noticed Sam hadn’t stood up again yet, so she glanced down to see why.
Sam was staring straight ahead with a look on her face that Brooke couldn’t
quite read. She felt herself flush even redder as she realized that Sam was
staring at her scar. The one that led from the side of her left thigh, up and
around towards her groin area. It was why she always wore shorts while
sunbathing.

To break her sudden discomfort,
Brooke lifted her foot to playfully push Sam backwards onto the sand. Sprinting
towards the water, she looked back over her shoulder and called out, “Fine, I’ll
go swimming! But last one in buys dinner!”

Brooke laughed as she saw Sam
instantly struggle to her feet, muttering something about “cheater” and “SO not
fair!”

But there were so many people on
the beach, that reaching the ocean proved a more difficult task than originally
imagined. And Sam was gaining on her. Brooke reached the ocean, right as Sam
reached her. She let out a yelp of surprise when Sam wrapped her arms around
her, tackling her as they both fell into the water.

Brooke felt like she should be
upset, but they could both only burst out laughing as they lay in the shallow
water, not even attempting to regain their balance right away.

As their laughter died down,
Sam’s expression turned more serious. “Brooke, I’m really sorry I was staring. I
just...I dunno, I just had never seen that one before. I mean, I totally
wouldn’t have noticed it if I weren’t, you know, right there, and you really
shouldn’t be embarrassed about it or anything, because it’s really not a big
deal, and...”

Brooke just giggled. Normally
she would, in fact, be extremely embarrassed about this. But she was determined
to stay in a good mood and not let her insecurities ruin her vacation. “You’re
babbling, Sammy. Don’t worry about it. I totally understand, so no need to
apologize. Now come on, didn’t you mention something about swimming, not just
sitting in the water?”

Brooke stood up, and now it was
her turn to reach down and pull Sam to her feet.

It had been Katie’s idea for
them all to head down to Florida. Her grandparents had a condo in Daytona Beach
that they only used during the winter, so they were able to stay down there for
the week for free. Jason couldn’t come, though, and after a few subtle hints
from Sam that she didn’t really want her boyfriend to come along either, Katie
informed a disappointed Luke that her parents didn’t want any boys staying in
the condo, and it was too late to even think about being able to find him a
hotel room.

So Katie, Sam, Brooke, and
Alexis had the place to themselves, although they actually weren’t there too
much. They slept and ate about half of their meals there, but the rest of the
time was spent out on the beach, or shopping, or snorkeling, or riding bikes, or
whatever else they felt like doing.

That night, the four friends
were getting ready to head out to a club. Sam was in the shower, Katie was
getting dressed in the room she was sharing with Alexis, and Brooke and Alexis
were hanging out in the other bedroom, as Brooke applied her make-up.

Alex had returned to what seemed
to be her favorite topic lately -- Brooke’s newfound questioning of her sexual
orientation.

“I just don’t understand why you
haven’t told Sam and Katie, yet. You know that you don’t have to worry about
what they’d think, right? It’s totally not as big of a deal as you seem to think
it is.”

Just then, Sam and Katie both
entered the room, Katie from the doorway to the hall, and Sam from the adjoining
bathroom. “Haven’t told WHAT to Sam and Katie?” they both asked simultaneously.

[ Shit! Damn it,
Alexis...horrible timing! ]

Alexis just stared at Brooke
apologetically, as Brooke looked back and forth between the two curious
newcomers. “Uh, nothing much. Just that....that Charlie asked me out last week.”

Alexis’ look changed from
apologetic to surprised. Brooke’s admission was certainly true, but it wasn’t
the one Alexis had been expecting.

~~~

Sam was dancing. Smiling
brightly as she moved to the music, completely at ease. Sam wasn’t drunk, but
Brooke knew that a little alcohol always helped her loosen up more. And Brooke
couldn’t tear her eyes away from her. She mumbled something about needing some
fresh air, and bolted away from the tight circle of her friends. She found some
space at the edge of the room, but maneuvered herself so she could still see Sam.

“I’m not sure if you’re even
aware of it, but you’ve been watching her all night.”

Brooke looked sharply to her
right, to see Katie smiling at her shyly.

“What? Watching who? I don’t
know what you’re talking about.”

“Watching Sam, of course. I’m
guessing that this, and not the romantic attentions of Charlie, is what you and
Alexis were really talking about earlier?”

[ Fuck, am I that obvious? ]

Brooke just stared at Katie, her
expression gradually shifting from tense and ready for denial to panic-stricken.

“Oh, Katie. What am I gonna do?
I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. But I mean, it’s SAM, of all people! I shouldn’t be
spending my night watching SAM!”

Brooke felt her heart pounding.
It was the first time she had admitted aloud her crush...

[ Who am I kidding? This is way
more than a crush, at this point. ]

...or whatever it was that she
felt for Sam. It was both a huge relief, to have it out in the open, and
completely terrifying at the same time.

Katie just reached out and
pulled Brooke into a comforting hug, as she whispered soothingly in her ear,
“It’s okay. Really. It’ll all work out, somehow. I mean, I’ll admit that the
situation kind of sucks, but you’ll be okay, Brooke. Whatever happens, you’ll
find a way to pull through. And I’m totally here for you, if you want to talk
about it, or whatever.”

Brooke just clung tightly to
Katie, trying to will herself not to cry. She was mostly successful, but a few
tears fell silently down her cheeks. Slowly, she calmed herself down and pulled
back from Katie. “Thanks. Sorry about the freak-out. Oh, and um, Alexis and
Jason know that I like both guys and girls, but they don’t know about which girl
in particular led me to that conclusion. I’m just not quite ready to tell
everyone that yet. So, I know I can totally trust you, but I’d appreciate it if
this didn’t go any further.”

“Yeah, sure Brooke, of course.”

Suddenly, Sam and Alexis
appeared, laughing about something. Sam was the first to notice the serious
expressions on her two friends’ faces. “Hey, is everything okay?”

[ God, I don’t know if I can
handle going out there and dancing any longer. Because I want to dance with HER,
not with her, Katie, and Alexis. ]

Thankfully, Katie seemed to read
her mind. “Yeah, everything’s great. But I’m getting pretty tired, guys. Would
it be okay if we head out?”

Brooke gladly breathed in the
cooler night air, as they all exited the club. She was extremely grateful to
Katie, both for being so awesome about the whole situation, and also for
cheerfully carrying on the conversation, covering for Brooke’s thoughtful silence.

Crawling into bed that night,
she felt both elation and misery. Because there was only one bed. So she got to
share a bed with Sam -- so close to her, but not close enough.

Sam was asleep within a few
minutes, but restlessness stayed with Brooke. She froze when she heard Sam sigh
contentedly in her sleep, and then reach an arm across Brooke’s stomach, pulling
her tight against Sam’s body. It was pure agony. Brooke knew that she wouldn’t
be sleeping much tonight. Because she couldn’t let herself relax into Sam’s
arms. If she did that, she’d never want to leave.

[ I wonder…does she even realize
that it’s me that she’s hugging? Does she think I’m Luke? That would completely
suck. Or maybe I just make a good pillow, and there’s nothing more to it than
that. ]

But now that the unbidden
thought of Sam and Luke in bed had entered Brooke’s mind, she couldn’t get rid
of it.

Brooke was thinking about
starting her psych paper when she heard a knock at her door.

“It’s open!”

Sam entered, closing the door
behind her. She quickly glanced over to Alexis’ side of the room, but Alexis had
just left for her early-morning run.

“Hey, Sam. What’s up?” Brooke
was puzzled by Sam’s obvious nervousness. Sam opened and closed her mouth
several times, apparently trying to figure out what she wanted to say. After a
few moments, Sam drew her eyebrows together and seemed to make some kind of
decision.

“I slept with Luke,” she blurted out.

Brooke felt some color drain
from her face, and her eyes widened. It was way too early in the morning to deal
with this.

“You what?” Brooke’s voice
was barely above a whisper.

“I slept with Luke.” Sam’s
voice sounded stronger this time, but she still looked a little shell-shocked.

“Oh.”

If Brooke was honest with
herself, she was actually surprised that this conversation hadn’t happened
earlier. Still, that didn’t make it any easier to take.

[ So that’s it. They’re
sleeping together. They’re really serious. I mean, they’ve been dating for so
long, how could it not be serious? But I held some small bit of comfort in the
fact that they hadn’t had sex yet. Oh well. There goes that. But I can’t let
myself freak out right now. This is so big for Sam, I have to be the good friend
that she needs. ]

“Okay. You slept with Luke.
That’s…well, I’m happy for you guys. That’s a big step forward for you. Are you
okay? I can’t tell whether you’re happy or not.”

Sam shifted back and forth on
the balls of her feet. “I don’t know. It was okay. Not quite what I was
expecting. I mean, last night, he was just being so perfect, and it all felt
right, and I made a conscious decision to go ahead with it, but it was just
weird, somehow.”

“Wait, so this just happened
last night? Sam, it’s only 7am. Did he leave already?”

Sam looked sheepishly at her
feet. “No, he’s still in my room. I felt too weird, being in there, awake, while
he slept, so I came down to talk to you. He sleeps like the dead, though, and
probably won’t even start waking up for at least another 2 and a half hours.”

Brooke hated that Sam had
obviously spent enough time sharing a bed with Luke to learn his sleeping
habits. She also noticed that Sam was acting more and more agitated. “It’s
just…I definitely wouldn’t call it bad, but I wouldn’t call it good either. Do
you know what I mean? But that’s just because it was the first time, right?
It’ll get better?”

Brooke felt her heart skip a
beat at those words. She didn’t know which would be worse to hear -- that sex
with Luke was great, or that the sex was only so-so, but Sam planned to keep
having sex with him anyway. But Sam looked so lost. Brooke stood up, took two
long strides, and pulled Sam into a hug.

“Don’t worry, Sammy. It’s
okay. It usually takes people a little while to adjust to each other like that
and learn what’s good for each other.”

Sam kept her arms around
Brooke as she mumbled into her neck, “Josh is the guy you’ve had sex with the
most, right? Did it get better with him?”

“Honestly, not really. But
Josh and I was never a good idea. So you shouldn’t exactly take us as a model.”

[ Poor Josh. Now I understand
a little more why that never could have worked out. I think, in a way, I was
crushing on Sam even way back then. ]

Brooke closed her eyes,
gently stroking Sam’s hair. She could smell Luke’s cologne clinging to Sam’s
body, and it almost made her physically sick. More than the smell itself, it was
the idea of what the smell meant. Still, she held on until she felt Sam relax,
and then finally released her hold on her step-sister.

“Well, I should probably get
back up there. Thanks, though, Brooke. I’m really glad I could talk to you.”

She quickly hugged Brooke
once more, and then left without another word. As soon as the door closed,
Brooke collapsed back onto her bed, releasing a strangled sob.

Unfortunately for Brooke, that
morning was not the last time she had to endure a tortuous conversation with Sam
about sex with Luke. Because for some reason, Sam seemed to have decided that
Brooke should be her post-sex analysis buddy. Brooke secretly thought that sex
shouldn’t require that much thought, but it did for Sam, apparently. Now, Brooke
allowed herself to turn and look at her bedmate.

[ Oh, Sam. You could do so much
better than Luke. He’s a really sweet guy, but I can tell from listening to you
that he’s not nearly as good for you as you deserve. ]

The next morning, Brooke dragged
her extremely tired self into the kitchen. She glared around the room at her
three very awake-looking friends. They all took one look at her and decided not
to comment, just point towards the fresh pot of coffee.

After two cups of coffee and a
bowl of cereal, Brooke started to feel better. She had come to a conclusion that
night, as she lay sleeplessly in bed, and decided that now was as good a time as
any to share it.

“You know, I think I’m going to
say yes to Charlie. And I’ll clean my dishes later, but I’m going to go take a
shower now.”

Brooke turned and quickly left
the room, but after a moment’s pause, she heard someone jump up from the table
and follow her. Once inside the bedroom, she turned to face Katie, who closed
the door and then looked back with a very confused expression on her face.

“You’re saying yes to Charlie?
Why?? I mean, last night...I thought it was pretty clear that Charlie’s not the
one you’re interested in.”

“No, he’s not. But I can’t
handle this. I can’t handle Sam right now. I can’t handle the way I feel around
her. I can’t handle listening to her talk about Luke. Talk about the pros and
cons of FUCKING Luke. I need some kind of distraction. Any kind of distraction.
So, Charlie lucks out by being the right kind of offer.”

Brooke pled silently with her
eyes for Katie to just let it go.

After staring at Brooke for
another few seconds, she just shrugged her shoulders. “Fine. I don’t think it’s
a great idea, but if that’s what you need, then fine.”

[ It’s not what I want, but it’s what I can have. ]

Chapter 12

Sam was about to knock on
Brooke’s door, but she was halted by the sound of Brooke talking on the phone.

“I know! Look, I think it’s safe
to say that I’m even less happy about it than you are. But it was the guys’
idea, and I couldn’t exactly say no, now could I? Maybe if I had more time, but
they put me right on the spot, and I didn’t have a handy excuse ready.”

Sam didn’t like eavesdropping.
So even though she was quite curious as to what Brooke was talking about, she
raised her fist again and knocked. Brooke opened the door and waved Sam inside,
but was preoccupied with listening to whoever was on the phone.

Brooke obviously wasn’t ready to
go yet, though, as there were numerous shirts strewn about the room, but Brooke
wasn’t actually wearing any of them. Sam blushed as she felt her eyes
immediately drawn to Brooke’s pink bra, but she quickly looked away, giving
Brooke her privacy.

“Yeah, she just got here...I’ll
call you or see you later, to let you know how it goes...Yeah, thanks...Okay,
bye Katie.”

Sam frowned. She had noticed
that Brooke and Katie had gotten a lot closer lately. And she wasn’t quite sure
how she felt about it. On one hand, she was happy that her two best friends got
along so well. But on the other hand...she was almost jealous. Because sometimes
it felt like Katie had taken over Sam’s role as Brooke’s confidant.

“Sorry, Sam. I’ll be ready in
just a minute.”

Sam turned to face Brooke again,
and was relieved to see her pulling on a shirt. At the same time, the door
opened again, and Alexis walked in. For the second time in the last month,
Alexis was once again trying out a new hair color. She was currently going with
a multicolored, but primarily pink look.

“I sure hope that shirt is in
the process of going on, not coming off...’Cause if it’s the latter, then I
guess I’ll just leave you two alone.”

Sam chuckled, as Brooke blushed
and glared at Alexis.

“Ha ha, you’re so funny. But no
need for you to worry yourself, all is good and innocent, and my shirt will be
staying on my body. Sam and I are about to leave.”

“Oh, right! It’s the big double
date tonight! Good stuff. So where are the boy toys?”

“We’re meeting them at the
restaurant,” Sam answered. “And with any luck, Brooke will be ready to leave
soon, or else we’re gonna be late.”

Sam glanced over her shoulder,
where Brooke had moved to search through some drawers for something or other.

“Awesome. Well, you kids have
fun. I’m actually just stopping in for a minute. I had to come get my bio book,
and now I’m off to chill with Jason and try to get some work done. Alas, while
you two get to go out on a date, I get to hang out in a library.”

[ It almost sounds like Alex is
saying that just Brooke and I are going on a date. Together. By ourselves. But
that’s obviously not what she meant, so whatever. I don’t know why I just
thought that. ]

Alexis continued, “But you gotta
admit, gay guys can often be so much more fun than the straight ones. Anyways,
see you two later.”

Brooke finally found what she
was looking for -- a tube of lip gloss. “Well I’m ready, so we can all head out
together.”

The subway ride to the
restaurant was pretty quiet. Brooke seemed preoccupied with something, and kept
tapping her foot at an incessant rate. At one point, Sam literally grabbed onto
Brooke’s thigh to hold it still.

[ What is Brooke so nervous
about? And she’s barely looked at me since I showed up at her room. ]

The restaurant was just a few
blocks from there, and they found Luke and Charlie already sitting down. Sam and
Brooke joined them, each lightly kissing her respective boyfriend.

After they had all ordered their
meals, Sam got up to go to the restroom.

[ This is so much more awkward
than I thought it would be. I don’t even know why it’s so awkward...we all
normally get along pretty well. But I guess it’s a whole different dynamic when
it’s just the four of us. ]

As she was returning to the
table, she saw that Charlie was talking. Brooke turned to look in her direction.
She quickly looked away again, but then seemed to do a double-take, bringing her
gaze back towards Sam. Sam wasn’t sure, but it almost seemed like Brooke’s eyes
swept up and down Sam’s body.

[ Did Brooke just check me out?
No, she probably just hadn’t noticed what I was wearing before, since she hasn’t
looked at me for more than half a second before now. ]

Sam had actually had a lot of
trouble figuring out what she was going to wear that night. She finally decided
on a silky, red, tight-fitting v-neck top and black pinstripe pants. The shirt
had been an impulse buy a month earlier, and she hadn’t actually worn it yet.
She thought it looked good on her, but wasn’t sure. Brooke’s seemingly positive
appraisal, however, eased some of Sam’s worries in that regard.

As Sam reached the table,
Charlie was still talking, Brooke was now staring intently at her lap, and Luke
was staring at Brooke with an expression of shock, mixed with what almost looked
like anger. Brooke looked up to see Luke staring at her. She looked back at Luke
defiantly. They simultaneously stole quick glances toward Sam, before going back
to staring at each other. There was some kind of silent communication between
them, and Sam had no idea what was going on. Charlie, meanwhile, had finally
caught on to the fact that no one was really listening to him, so he also just
looked around the table in confusion as to what had happened.

Mercifully, the waiter showed up
right then to bring them their food, momentarily breaking the sudden tension at
the table.

Fortunately, the good food gave
them something safe to talk about for a little while. Luke kept looking back and
forth between Sam and Brooke, though, and it was starting to get annoying.

Sam didn’t really understand
what Brooke saw in Charlie, but she had to admit that tonight he was doing an
admiral job of keeping some kind of conversation going. The guy could talk about
anything, it seemed.

“My family has been acting so
insane lately. We just found out that my older sister’s boyfriend is going to
propose to her next weekend, and my parents are about to explode with excitement
about the whole thing. Michelle totally knows that something weird is going on,
but luckily, no one’s let the cat out of the bag quite yet.”

“So how’d you guys find out
about it?” Sam was happy for something to take Luke’s attention away from her
and Brooke.

“Well, he did the whole
old-fashioned thing, and asked my parents for Michelle’s hand in marriage.”

Luke commented, “Nice. Classy.”

“No, wait. It’s not ‘classy.’ No
offense to your sister’s boyfriend, Charlie, but I think it’s a horrible idea.”
Everyone turned to look at Brooke.

Sam was worried to see Luke look
almost excited at the prospect of an argument.

[ This is SO not going to end
well. I just know it. ]

“Horrible? Don’t you think
that’s a bit harsh, Brooke? I think it’s romantic. Aren’t girls like you
supposed to like that kind of thing?”

Brooke frowned. “Okay, first of
all...‘Girls like me’? What’s THAT supposed to mean?”

“Just, you know...girly girls.
Girls that like shopping and want guys to take care of everything for them. The
type of girl that Sam used to love writing editorials against.”

“Hey, don’t bring me into this.
And yes, I used to write anti-Brooke editorials, but I’ve since learned that
there’s a lot more to her than that, so I have to admit that I don’t know what
your point is.”

“Thanks, Sam. And the point is
that you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about, Luke. You don’t know
anything about who I am.” Brooke’s voice remained eerily sweet and calm, but her
eyes flashed with anger.

“But to get back to the original
point, I like a guy to be romantic just as much as anyone else. But asking your
girlfriend’s parents for their permission to get married isn’t romantic. It’s
out-dated and misogynistic.”

“Where do you get that idea?
It’s considerate. It’s respectful. It shows that you want to get along with her
family, that you’re willing to go that extra step to make everything go
smoothly. Having the parents’ approval ensures all that.”

“But it’s not the parents’
decision! If my dad didn’t approve of the person I love, then that would suck,
but it has nothing to do with him, and if we really loved each other, then the
lack of his approval wouldn’t matter. You’re marrying the girl, not the father.
The tradition of asking for a woman’s hand in marriage is rooted in the idea
that the daughter has no say in the matter. She’s just a piece of property to be
bought! I’m sorry, but I don’t find THAT to be considerate and respectful.”

Sam felt a thrill run through
her. It has been a while since she had heard Brooke argue. And for once, she
wasn’t on the receiving end of Brooke’s scorn. It was nice to watch her in
action, without having to worry about holding her own. Seeing Brooke all fired
up was definitely quite a sight to see.

Charlie grinned and slung his
arm proudly around Brooke’s shoulders.

“I think my girl’s got you beat,
there, Luke. I learned very quickly that it’s useless to have an argument with
Brooke, because she’ll always win. You’d think that you would’ve learned the
same thing with Sam. Just do me a favor, Brooke, and don’t think too badly of my
sister if she’s totally charmed by the whole thing.”

Sam stiffened a little the
moment that Charlie’s arm made contact with Brooke. She felt an immediate
dampening of the feeling that watching Brooke had created in her. Somehow, she
didn’t like the idea of Brooke being “my girl” to Charlie. Brooke had just
finished ranting against male entitlement over women, and here was Charlie,
possessively wrapping his arm around her.

Brooke merely rolled her eyes.
She, too, seemed to deflate under the weight of Charlie’s arm, losing some of
the fire in her eyes. Sam tried to catch her gaze, tried to read what she was
thinking. Brooke looked uncomfortable. Like she wanted to be anywhere but there
in the restaurant with the three of them.

[ Is this what Brooke was
talking about, then, when she was on the phone with Katie? Was the prospect of
tonight what she was so unhappy about? ]

As they exited the restaurant a
while later, Sam managed to get Brooke’s attention. Brooke had kept a
superficial smile on her face for the rest of the meal, but she only really
brightened up when she could talk lightly with Charlie and not deal with either
Luke or Sam.

“Hey, you alright?”

When Brooke turned towards Sam,
a strand of hair hung in front of her face. Without thinking, Sam reached out
and lightly brushed it back and behind Brooke’s ear.

The touch startled Brooke, and
she quickly took a step away from Sam. She stared at Sam with a pained
expression, as Sam looked back, her hand frozen in mid-air, unsure of what she
had done wrong.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Something over
Sam’s shoulder caught Brooke’s attention, and Sam glanced back, to see Luke
watching them, as Charlie tried to flag down a cab. Sam turned back to Brooke,
who looked at her sadly. “I’m just tired. You should go with your boyfriend. He
mentioned that you were thinking of going back to Columbia tonight, and that’s
in the opposite direction. Charlie can get me home, so I’ll just see you later.
Goodnight, Sam.”

[ What’s wrong, Brooke? Why
won’t you talk to me? ]

In the cab with Sam, Luke didn’t
wait long before venting his various frustrations with Brooke.

After letting him go on for a
minute, Sam interrupted.

“Look, I don’t know what your
problem is. I know that I’m dating you, but Brooke is my best friend, so I can’t
imagine what you expect to gain by complaining about her to me! You’re acting
like a jealous little kid, and I have no idea why. Brooke did nothing wrong
tonight, and right now, all you’re succeeding at doing is making me wish that I
had gone home with her, instead of coming with you!”

[ Whoever thought up the idea of a double date is an idiot. ]

Chapter 13

Brooke had been driving for
about five hours, and it was almost midnight, but she didn’t feel like stopping
yet. She drove along the near-empty highway, somewhere in the middle of New
Mexico. She was pretty sure that Albuquerque would be coming up in an hour or
so, and that seemed like a good enough place to stay for the night.

Brooke loved the stillness of
the night -- the silence of everything except for Sam’s slow and steady
breathing. Sam murmured in her sleep, shifting around in the seat. Brooke
smiled, as she glanced over at her step-sister. Sam always looked so cute when
she slept, Brooke couldn’t help but smile.

This was their fourth day on the
road, and they would probably make it back home in another day. It had been a
very long four days, but Brooke was absolutely loving it. At the end of the
school year, Brooke’s dad and Jane had driven across the country to go pick up
Brooke and Sam. The parentals then took a plane home, as Sam and Brooke were
left to drive the packed car back to California. They had done pretty much
nothing other than drive, but it gave them plenty of time to watch the passing
scenery, and sing along to the radio, and just talk. Luke and Charlie hadn’t
even called too often, which would have taken away from Brooke’s enjoyment of
the trip.

Getting to Albuquerque took less
time than Brooke had anticipated, and then it was pretty easy to find a cheap
motel room. She managed to drag a still-very-sleepy Sam into the room, and
although she hadn’t felt tired in the car, Brooke fell asleep almost as soon as
her head hit the pillow.

The next thing Brooke was
consciously aware of was the smell of fresh coffee. She reluctantly opened her
eyes, and found that Sam was no longer in bed. She stretched, and the motion
must have caught Sam’s attention, as she turned from her chair by the window.

“Brooke, you’re awake! I hope I
didn’t wake you up. I tried to be quiet. But come look! According to this guide,
those are the Sandia Mountains. ‘Sandia’ means ‘watermelon’ in Spanish, and some
people say that they’re named that because of the pink color of the sunrise
reflecting off the face of the mountains. Isn’t it beautiful?”

Brooke sleepily turned on her
side, so that she could see the view out the window. Of course, Brooke thought
that the view of the person right beside the window was worth a good look all on
its own.

“Certainly not a bad sight to
wake up to. But who are you, and what have you done with my friend Sam? Because
the Sam I know likes to sleep in until at least 10am. The Sam I know would
definitely not voluntarily wake up in time for sunrise.”

Sam just grinned, as Brooke
yawned. “Very funny. But if you include the sleep I got while you were driving,
I got about 10 hours of sleep last night. I just happened to wake up on my own.
But you must be exhausted! So don’t mind me, you should totally go back to
sleep. We have more time before we need to hit the road again. I’ll even come
and re-tuck you in.”

Sam walked over to the bed, and
straightened the sheets which had gotten tangled up during the night, pulling
them around Brooke. Brooke held her breath as Sam smiled at her, then bent down
and kissed her on the forehead.

“Goodnight, Princess. Sweet dreams.”

[ If you’re in them, then I’m sure they will be. ]

~~~

One month later, and Brooke was
bored. After an insanely busy previous summer, she had decided to take it easy
this time. At first, it had been great -- plenty of time for sleeping in every
day, and lounging around watching TV or going to the beach or shopping or
whatever else she felt like. However, not having anything to do was starting to
get old.

It was now noon, and she had yet
to change out of her pajamas. The whole high school gang was coming over soon,
so she knew that she should probably get dressed. But she had about an hour
before they were supposed to show up, which was just enough time to get ready.

At that thought, the doorbell rang.

[ Damn it. Of course, they have
to show up early, on a day I’m acting like a total slob. ]

But Sam was in the shower, and
no one else was home, so Brooke had to be the one to answer the door.

Brooke grumbled as she opened
the door, and started speaking before she even saw who was on the other side.

“You’re early, which is totally not cool, and...”

Brooke froze, staring in
surprise at the two grinning, but unexpected, faces that greeted her.

“Charlie! Luke! What are you
guys doing here? I haven’t gotten dressed yet. We weren’t expecting you. I can’t
believe you’re here right now. I have to go get changed.” Brooke’s sentences
followed in quick succession, and she then bolted back into the house.

On her way upstairs, she heard
Charlie comment, “Well, at least she left the door open. I guess that means we
can go in.”

[ Charlie’s here. At my house.
Why is he here? He shouldn’t be here. Okay, you need to stop freaking out. He
is, officially, your boyfriend, so I guess that’s a pretty legitimate reason for
being here. But now you’re talking to yourself in your head, which probably
isn’t a good sign. ]

She heard the shower turn off,
so went to poke her head inside the bathroom.

“Jesus, Brooke! Knock much?! I’m
kind of not wearing clothing, here!”

For once, Brooke was actually
too flustered to get sidetracked by the fact that only a towel stood between her
and Sam’s nakedness.

“Sam, Charlie and Luke are here!
I don’t know why. You need to get dressed quickly and then go entertain them or
something. I need a shower and can’t deal with them right this second.” She
closed the door to the bathroom again, and went to continue her freak-out in her
own room. The summer had allowed her time to forget about the problem of Charlie
and what she was going to do about him. Until now.

A little while later, Brooke
made her way back down the stairs, to find Sam, Luke, and Charlie all sitting in
the living room.

“Hey, guys. Sorry about earlier.
And to what do we owe this visit?”

Charlie stood up from the couch
to give Brooke a hug and a kiss. “Well, baby...Luke lives nearby, as you know.
And remember how I said my parents were thinking of taking a vacation out to San
Diego? Well, we got out there last week, and then I took a train to Luke’s house
yesterday, and we drove over today as a surprise!”

“Well, you certainly managed to
surprise me!”

Just then, the front door opened
as Lily, Carmen, and Harrison entered, simply letting themselves in. They were
in the middle of conversation, but stopped as soon as they saw the two
unfamiliar faces in the room.

Lily just smiled in greeting and
walked right up to Luke and Charlie, extending her hand. “Hello! I’m Lily. And
that’s Carmen and Harrison. Who are you?”

“Uh. I’m Luke. And that’s
Charlie. We’re dating Sam and Brooke.”

At that, Carmen hurried over and
smacked Sam on the arm. “Oh my god. You two totally didn’t tell us that your
boys were coming! This is so exciting!”

Sam frowned as she rubbed her
arm where Carmen had hit her. “Well, it’s kind of news to us, too.”

Harrison just remained standing
by the door, his arms crossed in front of his chest, as he warily eyed the two
guys.

The doorbell then rang again,
and Sam went to answer it, revealing Nicole and Mary Cherry. They both brushed
passed Sam, with Nicole “accidentally” running her shoulder into her brunette
nemesis. “Ugh. I can’t believe I let Brooke convince us to come be in the same
room as you losers. Brooke, hun, you’re lucky that I like you. But hello...who
are these fine-looking gentlemen, and why haven’t I met them yet??”

After another round of
introductions, everyone settled in to just sit and talk. Luke and Charlie looked
a little overwhelmed by the craziness that was all of their friends. Brooke was
just relieved that she didn’t have to focus too much attention on her boyfriend.
It took all her and Sam’s energy just to diffuse the arguments that almost
erupted between Nicole or Mary Cherry and someone else every few minutes.

“Now wait just one second,
there, Mr. Luke. You tryin’ to tell me that you actually LIKE datin’ Spam? ‘Cuz
that just seems mighty strange to me. Someone as good-lookin’ as you shudn’t be
wastin’ yer time with someone like her. Now ME, on the other hand. I wud be the
perfect catch fer someone like you.”

“God, Mary Cherry...you are so
full of yourself! Luke obviously thinks that Sam is hot, and I think that the
two of them make a great couple! You’d never be able to handle someone like Luke
-- he’d use too many big words that you wouldn’t understand.”

“I don’t know what yer talkin’
‘bout, lil’ Lily. If I was datin’ Luke, then he wudn’t be usin’ big words. He
wudn’t have time to, ‘cuz we’d be spendin’ all our time makin’ sweet, sweet
love! Ooh, I know! I bet Spam has put poor Luke under some kind of spell! Nic,
we have to save Luke from Spam’s evil clutches!”

A few hours later, and the high
school friends had left, leaving the rest of them to recuperate. Over the course
of the afternoon, though, Brooke had been dismayed to learn that, while Charlie
was planning on staying at Luke’s house, he would be sticking around for another
week before he returned home to Chicago.

~~~

Finally, Charlie was gone. It
had been a long week. Brooke tiredly entered the Palace, took a few minutes to
chat with Jane and play with little Mac, and then dragged her feet upstairs,
collapsing onto her bed.

She sighed, and then got up and
let herself into Sam’s room. Sam was sitting at her desk, typing something on
her computer. Sam glanced at her briefly, before continuing to type.

“Well, Brooke, how kind of you to finally grace me with your presence.”

[ Huh? What is Sam’s problem? ]

“Uh, I’m sorry, but I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Well try thinking a little
harder, there, blondie. I mean, what could I possibly be talking about? Oh, I
don’t know. Maybe just the fact that I spent an hour waiting for you at the
gallery where you had promised to go see a photography exhibit with me. The one
I had noticed especially because I thought you’d be interested. It was a great
show, by the way. And I hope you don’t mind, but since you were a no-show, I
called up Lily and she came instead.”

“Oh, shit. Sam, I’m so sorry, I
completely forgot! I was with Charlie...and things went a little longer than I
anticipated, and I just lost track of everything else.”

“Right. Of course. This whole
week, you’ve been too busy sucking face with your precious boyfriend! I mean,
who needs regular old friends to hang out with, when you’ve got a visiting
boyfriend, right?”

“Oh, come on, Sam. No need to be
overly dramatic. I really am sorry! This stupid visit has thrown me completely
off-base this past week. I mean, he made the whole effort to come all the way
out here, I couldn’t just ignore him. And I resent your implication that all
we’ve been doing is making out, which is completely not true! I am sorry that we
haven’t been hanging out together as much. But if you remember, over winter
break, Luke practically lived here for a month, and I put up with that without
complaint. So you’d think that you could deal with one week!”

Brooke didn’t really want to
fight with Sam, but the stress of the week had been building up, and Sam was
providing a perfect target for lashing out.

“But when Luke was here, I never
ditched you just to go be with him. We at least did stuff together!”

“Yeah, and that was SO much fun
for me! Hanging out as the third wheel with you and your boyfriend -- loads of fun!”

“Look, I guess I just really
don’t understand what you’re doing with Charlie. You have nothing in common with
him, he can be a total ass sometimes, and you become a completely different
person when you’re around him! Suddenly, you become the perfect, stereotypical,
blonde! You’re back to acting like you did in high school, with Josh. If that’s
all he sees in you -- the trophy girlfriend -- then I don’t know what you’re
doing, putting up with his shit.”

“Wow. I’m glad you’re finally
telling me what you really think. So, my idea of being a good girlfriend
couldn’t possibly lead to anything more than trophy status, huh?”

“Brooke, that’s not what I meant…”

“No? Because that’s what it
sounded like! Well while we’re being honest, here, I have a few things that I
want to tell you, too. You and Luke? Not a good couple! And the sex is not going
to get better! You think about it too much!”

“Are you saying that it’s my fault that the sex isn’t good??”

“No, not necessarily. I have no
way of knowing about your personal contribution to the issue.”

Brooke paused momentarily,
blushing, as it struck her that, technically, she did have a way of knowing.
Because she had already slept with Sam. She looked at Sam, seeing the same look
of alarm cross Sam’s features, and Brooke guessed that a similar thought process
was running through her step-sister’s head. But they hadn’t talked about that
night in over a year, and she didn’t plan to bring it up again now.

So, although a little more
flustered, Brooke steeled herself and continued. “Well, whatever. I don’t know
whether the sex is bad because you think about it too much, or whether you think
about it too much because the sex is bad. Probably the second one, but in any
case, that doesn’t really matter. The point is, the sex is bad, and it’s been
bad for four months! I’m going to go out on a limb here, and guess that it’s
still going to be bad another four months from now! And yet, you stay with him!
Sex isn’t everything in a relationship, not by a long shot. But it is a major
part! But you won’t break up with him. And you know why? Because you’re too
nice, and because you’re a coward! Luke is ‘safe,’ for you now. You know what
you’re getting with him. And you’re too scared that if you let him go, no one
else is going to come along. And if you keep thinking like that, then maybe no
one will. But if you open yourself up for once, put yourself out there, take a
risk... Then you could have anyone you wanted.”

Brooke and Sam glared at each
other wordlessly. The intensity between them was palpable. They hadn’t had a big
fight like this in a long time; Brooke had forgotten how draining it was, how
fighting with Sam always made her feel both exhausted and frustrated beyond belief.

She let her shoulders drop, as
she sighed and looked at Sam sadly. “Anyway, like I said, I’m really sorry that
I forgot about going to the gallery with you. I had been looking forward to it,
too. But I came in here to tell you that I just broke up with Charlie, and it
didn’t exactly go too well, and I had wanted to talk to you about it, but I
really don’t want to be around you right now. So I’m just gonna go.”

Brooke saw Sam’s face
immediately soften, but she just turned around and left, going to her own room
to lie down on her bed and cry.

[ Why can’t I just like Charlie
the way that I like Sam? Life would be so much easier! ]